GB1528478A - Charging and pretreatment installation of a packing press for radioactive waste material - Google Patents

Abstract

1528478 Treating radio-active waste KERNFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM KARLSRUHE GmbH 5 Dec 1975 [6 Dec 1974] 49978/75 Heading G6R [Also in Division B4] In a charging and pretreatment installation of a packing press for radio-active waste material, which press is accommodated in a housing 10 and charged from above, a sealed glove box system 6, 7, 8, 9 is arranged above the press for the pretreatment of the waste material before pressing, adjacent glove boxes in the system being interconnected via coupling apertures 17, 48, 49. Waste material to be packed or baled is delivered to the sorting box 6 in an iron-hooked drum 79 which is moved by means of a conveyer 79A to below the flange 36 of the double cover (cf. B4-B5 abridgement) when this is in a horizontal position. The flange of the drum 79 is screwed to the flange 36. The drum 79 is then hoisted by means of a cable winch 25 and rotates about a hinge 35 so as to be tilted towards the box 6. By opening the double cover upwards into the box 6, the waste material drops out of the drum 79 on to a perforated plate 22 within the box 6 below which a trough 21 is located to collect liquid. The waste materials are sorted or graded in the box 6. Combustible substances, or substances which cannot be packed, are removed through an aperture 80. The whole plant is then evacuated through an extraction system 24, 71. The waste material is then fed through the aperture 17 into the filling box 7 from where it is fed through a filling shaft 11 into the pressing cylinder 1 which has been rotated about a central column 15 to a position beneath the shaft 11. When filled, the cylinder 1 is rotated through 120 degrees to below the actual pressing piston (not shown) and pressed into a cake. A further 120 degree rotation brings the cylinder 1 beneath an ejection piston 2 which presses the cake into a drum 4 which is forced against the press by a lifting device 3. Used extraction air filters are charged via a pocket 73 closed by a flap 74 into the filter comminuting box 9 and combustible pre-filters are comminuted by means of a circular saw before being discharged in a container which is incinerated together with its contents. Other filters are transferred via the aperture 49 into the ejection box 8 in which a stamping device (Fig. 3, not shown) is used to separate the filter material (e.g. fibreglass mat and aluminium foil) from the combustible wooden or plastics frame. The filter material in then fed via the aperture 48 into the filling box 7 and hence into the pressing cylinder 1. The contents of the cylinder 1 are bulky but very soft and are pre-pressed by means of a device 47 located over a charging aperture 46 in the base of the box 7. As a result, the main pressing operation may only be necessary after each second or third charge. All operations are performed via the glove couplings, e.g. 20, 51, 56, 69, 70, 76, 77, in the glove boxes 6, 7, 8, 9 by means of the glove technique.