METHOD FOR NITRATE-CONTAINING LIQUID RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING Russian patent published in 2015 - IPC G21F9/00 

FIELD: chemistry.

SUBSTANCE: invention refers to agents for nitrate-comprising liquid radioactive waste (LRW) processing and can be used at nuclear power plants and specialised plants conditioning low and mean-active radioactive waste. In the declared method, before hardening in inorganic or polymer matrix material, the nitrate-containing LRW is biodegradable by the enzymatic processes with specially selected consortia of microorganisms with added phosphoric acid and saccharose; the microorganisms recover nitrate ions to molecular nitrogen, whereas a non-radioactive gas phase (nitrogen, carbon dioxide) is dumped. The radioactive nuclides are absorbed by biomass slag formed by the biodegradation and consisting of the microorganisms and their metabolites; phosphoric acid promotes carrying out the denitrification processes and additionally leads to strontium phosphate sedimentation that provides higher strength of the cement matrix.

EFFECT: reducing the amount of nitrate-containing LRW before added to the inorganic (cement, ceramic) or polymer matrix, reducing the amount of long-storage (burial) final product, preventing biodegradation of nitrate-containing LRW as a part of long-storage cement compound.

3 cl, 1 tbl, 2 dwg