Electrokinetic geosynthetic dewatering of nuclear contaminated waste

Nuclear facilities produce both high level and low level contaminated wastes. The latter may relate to the civil infrastructure of the site and include waste sludge accumulating in drainage facilities. Over time the volume of the contaminated sludge can become significant requiring treatment and long term storage. If the waste is a liquid or near liquid form dewatering the waste is a requirement before deposition in a storage facility. However, dewatering using conventional methods usually results in an increase in volume of material which needs to be stored. The use of electrokinetic geosynthetics (EKG) technology provides an alternative dewatering treatment method which reduces the volume of the contaminated waste. The paper describes the dewatering of nuclear contaminated waste sludge using electrokinetic geosynthetics bags.