Joint venture provides innovative solution for radioactive wastes

Columbia, Md-Industrial technology company Thermatrix, Inc., San Jose, Calif, has formed a joint venture with ThermoChem, Inc., a Columbia, Md.-based supplier of steam-reforming systems, to provide an innovative solution for treating radioactive wastes.

The new company, called Formatrix and based in Columbia, Md., will combine existing patented technologies from each company under license to create a treatment system for significantly reducing radioactive-waste volume (as much as 50:1 volume reduction) prior to encapsulation or vitrification for long-term burial. Formatrix will initially focus on treating radioactive wastes from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) and the nuclear power industry, specifically spent ionexchange resins.

DoE is responsible for treatment and disposal of approximately 160,000 tons of low-level mixed waste (LLMW), most of which is stored in drums, barrels, and steel boxes at 20 different DoE sites. The objective of LLMW treatment systems is to completely destroy hazardous constituents and to simultaneously isolate the radionuclides in a superior final waste form such as glass. DoE is sponsoring development of technologies that meet this objective while achieving maximum volume reduction, low life-cycle costs, and maximum operational safety.

John Schofield, Thermatrix's chairman, president, and CEO, said, "Through this joint venture, Thermatrix will enter the multibillion-dollar radioactive-waste treatment industry." According to Schofield, "Formatrix will build proprietary systems which it will make available to clients on a lease or own/operate basis, and, in this way, it will receive an ongoing revenue stream based on the amount of radioactive waste treated."

Dr. Momtaz N. Mansour, ThermoChem's chairman and CEO, said, "The Formatrix joint venture will offer both the government and the private sector a safe and more efficient method for treating radioactive wastes." Mansour said the system has few moving parts improving reliability. "Combining these two flameless systems will create a unique flameless system that is particularly well suited for treating radioactive waste," he said.

In the treatment system, ThermoChem's patented fluidized bed steam reformer uses steam to liberate moisture, organic compounds, and other volatile compounds from the radioactive wastes, while leaving behind the radioactive residual solid. In this way, the fluidized-bed system achieves high volume reductions in the radioactive wastes prior to their encapsulation or vitrification.

Thermatrix's patented flameless thermal oxidation technology then destroys any organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants in the off-gas from the fluidized bed, making the entire system environmentally sound. In addition, the Thermatrix technology may recycle energy back to the fluidized bed. Schofield added, "We believe this flameless system will provide a safe, cost-effective solution for dealing with the organic content of radioactive wastes and thereby will provide a much more suitable feed for vitrification processes, such as those currently marketed by GTS Duratek and Molten Metal Technology."

Construction of a 100 lb/hour prototype of the combined system, under a ThermoChem contract with DoE, has been completed. Testing of a variety of radioactive-waste surrogates is in progress, and this demonstration unit will be the model for subsequent Formatrix commercialization.

Dr. Clyde Frank, DoE deputy assistant secretary for technology development, said the system offers efficient waste treatment with lower environmental risks.

Copyright Instrument Society of America Mar 1997
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