Abstract: A system for disposing of radioactive waste material from nuclear reactors by solidifying the liquid components to produce an encapsulated mass adapted for disposal by burial. The method contemplates mixing of radioactive waste materials, with or without contained solids, with a setting agent capable of solidifying the waste liquids into a free standing hardened mass, placing the resulting liquid mixture in a container with a proportionate amount of a curing agent to effect solidification under controlled conditions, and thereafter burying the container and contained solidified mixture. The setting agent is a water-extendable polymer consisting of a suspension of partially polymerized particles of urea formaldehyde in water, and the curing agent is sodium bisulfate.

Abstract: A method of disposing of wet radioactive waste materials such as those generated in the water used to cool atomic reactors, comprising combining the waste material with a hydrophilic resin in proportions sufficient to provide a solid mass of the resin with the radioactive waste component distributed within. In its preferred form, the waste material is concentrated by separating water from the radioactive portions thereof by methods such as evaporation, taking up the waste components with an ion exchange resin and separating the resin from the bulk of the water, or by the addition of flocculating agents or the like and filtering. The preferred hydrophilic resinous material is a conventional urea-formaldehyde dispersion, which is partially polymerized and capable of taking up water and fully polymerizing upon the addition of an acidic curing agent.