Abstract

Accelerated Leach Test for Low-level Radioactive Waste Forms in the Hungarian NPP Paks

Gyorgy Patzay, Otto Zsille, Jozsef Csurgai, Gyula Vass and Ferenc Feil

An accelerated leach test method was used for low-level radioactive waste forms in the Hungarian NPP Paks. These experiments were performed using cylinders prepared form Hungarian cement type CEM I 32,5 LH and CEM III/B 32, N-LH/SR. Each cylinder was made using cement or cement plus additive using radioactive waste water. The cemented radioactive material was evaporator bottom residue or sludge as well as evaporator cleaning acid solution, spent ion exchange resin, decontamination solution from NPP Paks, containing 134Cs, 137Cs and 60Co as main radioactive components. Leach tests were performed according to ASTM C 1308-08 standard. A computer program (ILT15) associated with the accelerated leach test was developed based on the ASTM C 1308-08 standard. Literature test and measured leaching data were analyzed to assess whether the model for diffusion from a finite cylinder describes leaching from cement based waste forms. In this paper some of the experimental and modeling work used to validate the test method are presented.