Size matters for speeding up nuclear waste cleanup

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2022-05-13 17:30:04

May 12, 2022

by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Cleaning up legacy radioactive waste from nuclear weapons production has been a daunting, lengthy, and expensive process.

Now, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have designed and demonstrated a simple particle separation technology that may decrease the time and money needed for cleanup. The industrial-scale application is described in Chemical Engineering and Processing—Process Intensification.

What's more, the technology may have broad industrial uses, including in food processing, advanced manufacturing, aerosol science, supercritical fluids, oil and gas, and environmental waste processing.