COMMENTARY — Cameco recycling; coal clean-up

Construction is under way on a recycling plant at uranium producer Cameco’s Blind River, Ont., refinery. The $10-million plant will take liquid byproduct from the refining process and convert it into solid form, reducing the volume by almost 75%.

The Blind River facility refines concentrates (U3O8) from uranium mines into uranium trioxide (UO3) as one step in the nuclear fuel cycle. Produced is a byproduct called raffinate, containing uranium, sulphuric acid and unwanted minerals.

Since the refinery opened in 1983, the raffinate has been transported by tanker trucks to the nearby Quirke, Denison and Stanleigh uranium mills in the Elliot Lake, Ont., region. The Quirke mill closed in 1991, and Denison in 1992; Stanleigh is expected to close in 1996.

The byproduct, a light-brown powder, is non-corrosive, virtually insoluble in water and easy to handle. It does contain low levels of radioactivity, which can be monitored. It will be stored in drums (about 2,500 per year) at the refinery, awaiting shipment to a facility for final recovery of the leftover uranium.

— From Cameco’s “The Source” publication.

The coal-based Clean Soil Process developed by the Alberta Research Council was scheduled to be tested late this year at former manufactured gas plant sites in New York state. The demonstration is being conducted by Thermo Design Engineering (TDE) of Edmonton, and New York Gas & Electric Corp. “We are targeting a multi-million-dollar U.S. market for clean-up of manufactured gas plants,” says Anthony Rojek, TDE vice-president. “The clean soil agglomeration process is an excavate-and-treat technology uniquely suited for remediation of soils contaminated with tar and tar-water emulsions found at these sites.”

With the research council, TDE is constructing a portable, 200-tonne-per-day clean soil plant in Edmonton, which will be hauled on trailers to New York. The Clean Soil Process separates the various constituents of the contaminated soil, and disposes of the heavy hydrocarbon residues by combustion in a utility power plant. The process exploits the fact that heavy organic compounds absorb on and agglomerate coal particles when mixed in a slurry of hot water.

— From the “Coal Focus” newsletter of The Coal Association of Canada.