A Review of Power Fluidics for Nuclear Waste Mobilization

Power Fluidics technology has been used for handling nuclear fluids for over 30 years. The key feature of the technology is the absence of mechanical moving parts in contact with the process fluid, so giving inherent plant safety and reliability. Power fluidic pumps use compressed gas to effect liquor flow, and are capable of pumping without flow dilution and without susceptibility to erosion or blockage. Applications for Power Fluidics technology were initially in the field of sludge pumping in new-build nuclear processing plants, and a number of designs of pumps capable of handling high-viscosity, high-SG materials were developed. More recently, Power Fluidics technology has been further developed for ‘retrofitting’ to achieve mobilization and retrieval of radioactive wastes and sludges from existing tanks and silos. This paper focuses on this application and will describe how Power Fluidics equipment has been developed and implemented to mix, sample and retrieve waste from existing storage tanks or silos. Case studies of several recent successful projects are included.