Use of drum film devices in radioactive waste conditioning technology

by
V.A. Uzikov
.
I.V.Uzikova

.
Read the whole article
Download the ZIP file
.
Introduction
So far, the common practice of radioactive waste treatment in Russia was controlled temporary storage – the so-called “procrastinated decision”. In Russia, the total amount of accumulated liquid radioactive waste (hereinafter LRW) is 477 million, and 77 millions of solid radioactive waste. However, as the world and Russian practice shows, that the controlled storage of radioactive waste in the long term results their accumulation and is not acceptable as a strategy of RAW treatment. Such strategy does not lead to the final safe solution of the problem, but requires the permanent overhead costs without clear prospect [1].

Thus, high production complexes for LRW treatment are needed. Key consumers interested in of liquid radioactive waste treatment plants are:

• enterprises of spent fuel treatment;
• existing nuclear power plants with power and research reactors;
• enterprises involved to decommissioning of boats and ships with nuclear power plants;
• enterprises involved to decommissioning of nuclear power plants and research reactor
installations;
• enterprises involved in the liquidation of the consequences of nuclear accidents
(Chernobyl, Fukushima , etc.).

Nowadays, mainly thermal and sorption methods are used for treatment of liquid radioactive waste. Using these methods, the main part of liquid radioactive waste, produced during the operation of nuclear installations of various purposes and other facilities using radioactive substances, is treated. These methods cannot be called original or specific for the treatment of radioactive waste (hereinafter RAW), because they were taken from various conventional industries and modified. Mainly these are methods, usually used in purification, treatment and desalination of water.
For implementing of treatment methods of non-nuclear industry and their modification, the specific requirements of industries related to radiation must be taken into account [2]:

• leak tightness of the equipment, excluding the possibility of radioactive contamination of buildings, staff and the environment;
• feasibility of the equipment operation to minimize the need for maintenance services in the radiation conditions, which require complicated and expensive works of equipment decontamination.

The most universal method for treatment of almost all types of LRW is a thermal method, in which LRW solution is evaporated to concentrate radioactive products in a small volume.
Practice of LRW treatment shows that the main source of problems in evaporation equipment are the heat exchange pipes. During the operation, their surface is covering inevitably by sediments, which have to be removed periodically by chemical washing, with interruption of the treatment process and at the same time with producing a large amount of secondary LRW. This inevitability is caused by evaporator’s design including heat exchange tubes – the process of sedimentation of the tubes cannot be prevented, it can only be decreased by using different methods: increasing the circulation velocity in heat exchange tubes or addition of special chemicals additives. The inevitability of foam-and-droplets entrainment from the evaporator is also caused by its design, so the additional special equipment have to be used for steam and condensate purification from radionuclides. Moreover, it is necessary to perform periodically the mechanical cleaning of heat exchange tubes which leads to important radiation doses to personnel.
All these problems existing in LRW evaporation technology are well known and studied, and some alternative methods are considered in [2], but it is concluded that these methods have a low productivity and heat transfer because of the lack of an organized circulation of evaporated solution [2].
The ideal comprehensive solution of the problem of LRW treatment is to create a continuous LRW evaporation technology with cementation of the concentrate at the same time, and the possible addition of used sorbents and sludge to the resulting cement compound. The main factor limiting the use of evaporation technology is a high energy costs, but with the appearance at energy market such installations as E-Cat, this problem disappears.
For comprehensive solution of the problems of LRW concentration and its subsequent cementation it is proposed to establish a technological process based on the two following principles:

1. To perform the process of LRW concentration in the evaporator equipment, that helps to prevent droplet entrainment and excludes degradation of technological parameters in time (to exclude interruptions in work of evaporation equipment due to fouling of the heating surface).
2. To make the processes of evaporation (secondary evaporation) and conditioning of LRW (inclusion in cement matrix) sequental and continuous, thereby eliminating the need for a large number of intermediate containers and dosing of separate portions.
.
Read the whole article
Download the ZIP file
.

239 comments to Use of drum film devices in radioactive waste conditioning technology

  • Swedo

    Dear Andrea,

    I was wondering, do you only have one Ecat-X prototype (the one running for 2 months), or do you have multiple Ecat-X experiments?

    Kind regards

  • Andrea Rossi

    Toussiant
    At 07.30 of Sunday January 24:
    1 MW E-Cat stable,but this night has been bad.
    E-Cat X under particular experiment, very promising.
    Warm Regards,
    A.R.

  • toussaint

    Dear Andrea Rossi

    An update today of the ECAT-X ?

    For this year 2016 can we hope for a presentation of the ECAT-X ?

    Warm regards.

    Toussaint françois

  • Andrea Rossi

    Toussaint:
    The commercialization already began, the 1 MW plant in operation is a commercial unit. As for the massive production I am not able now to give a date, albeit we are already working to be ready for it. F9.

  • toussaint

    Dear Andrea Rossi.

    Your 1 MEGA-WATT is evolving since 2011, so when do you forsee the commercialisation of the

    industrial MEGA-WATT plant ?

    Kind regards.

    Toussaint françois

  • Rhiannon Schwartz

    Dear Dr Vitaly Uzikov and Irina Uzikova:
    Very interesting paper.
    Thank you,
    R.S.

  • Andrea Rossi

    Marina Marini:
    Thank you for your very kind words.
    Warm regards,
    A.R.

  • Marina Marini

    Caro Andrea Rossi:
    Thank you for your hard work: I can’t wait to have the possibility to have an E-Cat in my house. I have been fascinated from http://www.ecat.com
    Congrats for your US Patent.
    Ciao, Marina

  • Vaux

    Dr Irina, Vitaly Uzikov:
    Very interesting technology, but I am afraid that if we resolve the problem of the radioactive wastes the nuclear plants will have a come back and I think this will be more dangerous that the wastes.
    Cheers,
    Vaux

  • Erick Solkowitz

    Dear Irina and Vitaly Uzikov:
    Thank you for your paper pubished on the JoNP.
    Interesting and well done. I wish success to your important technology,
    Erick

  • Andrea Rossi

    Henry Bethancourt:
    No, I did not.
    Warm Regards,
    A.R.

  • Henry Ethancourt

    Dear Dr. Rossi,

    In light of the recent article published on JONP by Uzikov & Uzikova, I was wondering if you noticed any direct effect of accelerated decay of radioactive isotopes if said isotopes are placed within the E-Cat reactor.

    Best regards,

    Henry Ethancourt

  • Brilliant

    Irina & Vitaly Uzikov:
    It would be interesting to see your plant to reduce radioactive waste operating with the thermal/electric energy made by the E-Cat.
    Good luck!
    Brilliant

  • Jan Petersen

    Dr Uzikov:
    How is born the technology of your plant to treat radioactive wastes? Did you have experience in the field in some way?
    Thank you,
    Jan Petersen

  • Andrea Rossi

    Toussaint:
    The charge, if necessary, can be changed, obviously delaying the term of the test end by the number of days necessary. We still have days spared of the allowed 400 days, so the validity of the test should not be compromised. So far, anyway, it has not necessary to change the charge.
    Warm Regards,
    A.R.

  • toussaint

    Dear Andrea Rossi,

    Will you be able to change the charge of the fuel,if not, will it jeopardise the 1 year test ?

    Kind Regards

    Toussaint François

  • Jack Stakoe

    Dr Irina and Vitaly Uzikov:
    Very interesting paper: you have given a contribution important to the dramatic problem of the radioactive wastes: the reduction of their volume is crucial, due to the lack of repositories, since the radioactivity cannot be eliminated and only their volume can be reduced.
    Congratulations,

  • Irina Uzikova

    Dear Terry,
    Thank you very much,
    Best regards
    Irina and Vitaly Uzikov

  • Irina Uzikova

    Dear Mike,
    The examples for treated liquide radioactive waste are vat residu of nuclear plants, liquid solutions after processing of spent nuclear fuel, liquids formed after nuclear accidents (Fukushima, Chernobyl) etc
    Best regards
    Irina and Vitaly Uzikov

  • Irina Uzikova

    Dear Bianca
    Yes, we are open to come and to present our technology to interested persons of the field
    Best regards,
    Irina and Vitaly Uzikov

  • Andrea Rossi

    Chris Beall:
    Thank you for your attention to our website and for the important suggestions.
    Warm Regards,
    A.R.

  • Chris Beall

    Another website comment: on the page http://ecat.com/terms-conditions, in the Governing Law section, it is stated that disputes will be handled by “the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of United Kingdom”. Is that correct? It seems odd (to me, anyway).

  • Chris Beall

    Dr. Rossi,

    With regard to the performance issue with your new website: it seems to perform better using the Opera browser (which sometimes trades function for speed). Also, even the Sitemap page, with only plain text content, shows the same performance issue reported by others. I tested with Chrome, Firefox, and Safari on OS X 10.8.5

    (from upstate New York)

  • Mike

    Dr Uzikov, Uzikova:
    Can you give a list of all the kind of radioactive wastes your technology is abke to treat?
    Thank you,
    Mike

  • Bianca

    Dr Vitaly Uzikov & Dr Irina Uzikova:
    Are you open, if invited, to come in the USA to present your technology to interested persons of the field?
    Thjank you,
    Bianca

  • Andrea Rossi

    Toussaint:
    now, at 08.30 a.m. of Tuesday Jan 12
    E-Cat 1 MW: stable, no troubles
    E-Cat X: unstable, to be studied why, but still very promising
    Warm Regards,
    A.R.

  • toussaint

    Dear Andre Rossi,

    An update from your plant today ?

    Kind regards.

    Toussaint françois

  • Terry

    Dear Dr Irina & Vitaly Uzikov:
    Fantastic paper, your invention can mitigate the radioactive waste problem.
    Thank you for teaching us this contribution from the Russian scientific world.
    Terry

  • Andrea Rossi

    Alessandro Coppi:
    Thank you: I passed your suggestion on to the Team that is working on it.
    I do not experience with my computer what you are complaining of, though.
    Warm Regards
    A.R.

  • alessandro Coppi

    Hi Andrea,
    with regard to the new web site ecat.com as already said Xavier, is nearly unusable, the huge amount of interesting contents risk to be unreachable, because the web site is not responsive, and does not depend from the web server, but probably on some too much widgets that affect the rendering.
    Take in account the history of the galleon Regalskeppet Vasa.
    My humble opinion is that a content effective corporate web site should not have graphical effects or too many scrolling menu, but a basic style.

    Best regards
    Alessandro Coppi

  • Andrea Rossi

    Toussaint:
    Too soon to know. Depends on how the operation goes.
    Warm Regards
    A.R.

  • toussaint

    Dear Andrea Rossi,

    How long will last the preliminar test on the E-Cat X ?

    Kind regards.

    Toussaint françois

  • Andrea Rossi

    Toussaint:
    I suppose so.
    Warm Regards
    A.R.

  • toussaint

    Dear Andrea Rossi,

    At the end of the one year test on the MegaWatt plant, if succesful, will there be some

    communication of the results or any conference ?

    Kind regards.

    Toussaint françois

  • Andrea Rossi

    Drew G.:
    We think a couple of months.
    Warm Regards,
    A.R.

  • Drew G

    Dr.Rossi:

    Is there a target date for submission of your ECAT-X patent to the US Patent Office? We look forward to learning more about the concept.

  • Andrea Rossi

    Bill Hayes:
    I am sorry, but I cannot yet answer this kind of questions.
    We will publish these data after the completion of the preliminar tests, as I said.
    A.R.

  • Bill Hayes

    Dear Dr. Rossi:
    I understand that IP protection issues may not allow you to answer at this time, however, I would like to ask what happens when a resistive load is placed on the electrical output terminals the E-Cat X.
    1. Is the output voltage and current non-linear, like it would in a photovoltaic device?
    2. Is the output a characteristic I-V curve?
    3. If not, is the output voltage and current linear under varying resistive loads up to the maximum voltage output?
    Thank you,
    Bill Hayes

  • Andrea Rossi

    Jouni Toumela:
    Thank you for the interesting information.
    Warm Regards,
    A.R.

  • Jouni Tuomela

    Caro Andrea Rossi,
    Please do find this interesting, especially this point: 44:44
    https://youtu.be/8SiuTk2ZiyU?t=1894
    The properties of material in smallest of scale are astonishing. Here the formation of blue colour of the wings of a butterfly.

  • Andrea Rossi

    Marco Serra:
    Sorry, I cannot make pre-disclosure, pending patent application on course.
    Warm Regards,
    A.R.

  • Marco Serra

    Dear Andrea
    Woooooww what a scenario you dreamed. And what a revelation. And how many questions arises.
    Please let me ask you one of them:
    Maybe I’m totally wrong but do you mean that the ECat-X can also emit light so that it can be used as a lamp and, by radiation, as a home heater ?

    Thank you for your patience.

    God bless you
    Marco Serra

  • Andrea Rossi

    Mikea:
    The Jet engine we are studying could be useful for Tesla, if it works.
    By the way: I like Tesla.
    Warm Regards,
    A.R.

  • Mikea

    Dear Andrea,

    Can Ecat-X be used to power electric cars like Tesla? If it will, I can’t wait to transition to carbon-free transportation. That would make the world a better place to live. Happy New Year to you and your team.

  • Andrea Rossi

    Marco Serra:
    Grazie per la Sua attenzione
    Buon Anno!
    A.R.

  • Marco Serra

    Tantissimi auguri di un meraviglioso anno 2016.
    Ho provato a rimanere sveglio fino alla tua mezzanotte, ma sto crollando (sono le 3 passate qui).
    Una cosa è sicura, domattina la prima cosa che farò sarà leggere il tuo blog.

    Dio ti benedica
    Marco Serra

  • Andrea Rossi

    Irina Uzikova:
    A happy and very successful New Year to you and Vitaly!
    A.R.

  • Irina Uzikova

    Dear Andrea,
    Thank You very much!
    We wish You a Happy and very Successfull New Year!
    Irina and Vitaly

  • Andrea Rossi

    H. Hansson:
    Point made.
    Warm Regards,
    A.R.

  • Irina Uzikova

    R.S
    At this moment we are looking for company
    Wish you a Happy New Year!
    Irina and Vitaly Uzikov

Leave a Reply

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>