To solve the problem of silts and soils that are contaminated with
radioactive and toxic substances, the following method has been developed at
SIA RADON. The material is mixed with limestone and other components,
including up to 70 % (mass) of dried residue of liquid radioactive waste.
The mixture is heated at 800 to 1000 °C, shredded, and used to form cement.
This cementation process may be used to treat radioactive or other chemical
waste.
The work demonstrated that in the case of silts, for example, the product
volume is reduced by a factor of 1.5 to 3 compared to the initial silts
volume. A fast hardening, durable product is obtained, the quality of which
is not inferior to that obtained by using the traditional binders. For some
parameters, e.g., hardening rate and macroelement leaching, the current
method is significantly better than the traditional cementation process. It
has also been demonstrated that, over a wide range of parameters, when dry
residue of liquid radioactive waste is used in the initial mixture, the part
of NOxCan be reduced to nitrogen, thereby reducing NOx
emissions.