Treating radioactive wastewater from ammunition plants
army ammunition plants release wastewater that can contain highly radioactive contaminants, hydrocarbons and dissolved inorganic solids. At the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant in New Brighton, Minnesota, usa , this problem arises when water is used to mop and wax strip the floors of the plant. It is by no means easy to deal with this wastewater both in terms of treatment technology and cost.
The treatment processes followed earlier involved chemical precipitation and, to a lesser extent, ion exchange and thermal evaporation. However, as the public pressure increased to reduce radioactive wastes, the need for an alternative process developed. Invariably, the new processes are very complex and expensive. The highly contaminated wastewater stream of the ammunition plant can now be treated to remove depleted uranium through the Meta-Lock process, developed by keeco , an environmental company that offers waste management systems based on its silica micro encapsulation process.
Meta-Lock is highly specific towards radioactive ions and is able to reduce high volumes of dilute radioactive effluents to a small quantity of radioactive sludge and non-radioactive water. The volume of radioactive material is reduced to 95-96 per cent. The process involves a calcium- and silica-based powder composed of various chemically active groups that result in the encasing of the radioactive contaminants into an inert sludge when brought into contact with moisture or wastewater. The process was controlled using pH as the primary process parameter. Water treated by Meta-Lock had a concentration of uranium below 1ppm (instrument detection limit) and was also non-radioactive.
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