Fuel cycle and nuclear waste

Summary

The effects of -irradiation and waste chemistry on the degradation of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) in a simulant of an organic complexant mixed waste from the U.S. D.O.E’s Hanford Site have been studied. Re-identification of degradation products from an earlier radiolysis study and the results of a new chemo-degradation study indicate that glyoxylate and several chelator fragments, both nitrosated and un-nitrosated, are responsible for most of EDTA’s chemodynamics in the simulated waste.