(159f) Recycling Nitric Acid Contaminated with Radionuclides

This presentation will cover the design, fabrication, and operation of a system to recycle nitric acid containing high levels of radionuclides. The challenge was to recycle as much nitric acid as possible while reducing waste. Just a few of the challenges for this project were high radiation levels, highly corrosive solutions, extremely tight water discharge requirements, and extremely limited system access after system start up. On top of these requirements, it was also desired to operate this as a continuous distillation that was only operated during one shift (restart system every morning), with very limited space requirements. It is also under severe time and budgetary constraints. We must also remember that this system must meet Nuclear QA/QC program requirements.