INEEL HEPA Filter Leach System: A Mixed Waste Solution

Calciner operations and the fuel dissolution process at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory have generated many mixed waste high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters. The HEPA Filter Leach System located at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center lowers radiation contamination levels and reduces cadmium, chromium, and mercury concentrations on spent HEPA filter media to below disposal limits set by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The treated HEPA filters are disposed as low-level radioactive waste. The technical basis for the existing system was established and optimized in initial studies using simulants in 1992. The treatment concept was validated for EPA approval in 1994 by leaching six New Waste Calcining Facility spent HEPA filters. Post-leach filter media sampling results for all six filters showed that both hazardous and radiological constituent levels were reduced so the filters could be disposed of as low-level radioactive waste. Since the validation tests the HEPA Filter Leach System has processed 78 filters in 1997 and 1998. The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory HEPA Filter Leach System is the only mixed waste HEPA treatment system in the DOE complex. This process is of interest to many of the other DOE facilities and commercial companies that have generated mixed waste HEPA filters but currently do not have a treatment option available.