Abstract: An automatic pallet loading/unloading method for radioactive waste drums is disclosed, which comprises the steps of: (a) providing a conveying pallet accommodating six radioactive waste drums; (b) arranging the pallet on a specific importing carrier; (c) performing a two-dimensional fetching position adjustment upon the pallet by the importing carrier; and (d) using a grabber crane to grab and carry the radioactive waste drums in a specific order so as to apply an continuous inspection process upon each radioactive waste drum successively. In a preferred aspect, the two-dimensional fetching position adjustment uses a transverse positioning operation cooperating with a lengthwise positioning operation to successively place each radioactive waste drum in a specific position to be grabbed by the grabber crane and thus to be inspected by the inspection process.

Abstract: An automatic pallet loading/unloading method for radioactive waste drums is disclosed, which comprises the steps of: (a) providing a conveying pallet accommodating six radioactive waste drums; (b) arranging the pallet on an specific importing carrier; (c) performing a two-dimensional fetching position adjustment upon the pallet by the importing carrier; and (d) using a grabber crane to grab and carry the radioactive waste drums in a specific order so as to apply an continuous inspection process upon each radioactive waste drum successively. In a preferred aspect, the two-dimensional fetching position adjustment uses a transverse positioning operation cooperating with a lengthwise positioning operation to successively place each radioactive waste drum in a specific position to be grabbed by the grabber crane and thus to be inspected by the inspection process.

Abstract: A new chemical separation process was developed in this invention using 2-methoxyethanol or methyl collosolve (MCS) and ethylene glycol (EG) as separation agents, to separate the valuable extractants such as di(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid(D2EHPA), tri n-octyl-phosphine oxide (TOPO) from spent solvent and to recover the extractants. The process comprises separation and recovery sections. In the separation section the extractants were removed by the polar solution from spent solvent based on the difference of miscibilities. In the recovery section, the polar solution loaded with extractants was distillated under vacuum to remove MCS as a distillate and water was added to the bottom product to facilitate the separation of the extractants. By using this novel process, 99% of D2EHPA and 70% of TOPO in the spent solvent were separated and 98% of D2EHPA was recovered. MCS and EG can be regenerated and reused in the process.