On the Gelation of Liquid Radioactive Wastes

Influence of the Typical Chemical Components of the Wastes on the Formation of Crosslinked Acrylamide Polymer Gels

Abstract

With a view to applying the copolymerization of acrylamide with acrylamide-glyoxal condensate to the stabilization of liquid radioactive wastes into gel for safe disposal or storage, several experiments were carried out on the influence of typical chemical components of the wastes on the copolymerization. The results were promising, and it was deduced that many of the liquid wastes such as the concentrates from evaporation and chemical sludges from flocculation processes could be transformed into stable polymer gels without any operational difficulties using a small quantity of gel-forming reagents.