Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
5/29/2015
Studsvik AB has acquired patents and other intellectual property and equipment for a freezing technology that can be used in remediation projects, the company announced this week. The technology comes from FriGeo AB, a partner that Studsvik has been working with to apply the technology across radioactive waste platforms. “Studsvik and FriGeo have been working together for several years to apply this technology in the radioactive waste market, including deployment in the United States and the United Kingdom,” the company said in a release. “This technology provides a safe and efficient alternative to conventional radioactive waste sampling and dewatering technologies.”
FriGeo uses freeze technology for dredging and dewatering of sludge, according to the company’s website. The FriGeo Freeze Dredging method allows contaminated material to be stabilized in place and safely lifted in a frozen state, effectively isolating the contaminants in the frozen material. The company also offers a Freeze Drying technology, which dries sludge. Through advanced freeze technology, an optimized freeze-thaw cycle is created to remove bound water and transform the sludge into coarse particles with low water content, the company’s website said.
TEPCO Has Used Freezing Technology in Fukushima
The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) in Japan has also incorporated a freezing technology to aid in the water management issues at the Fukushima Daiichi cleanup site. TEPCO had planned to freeze the contaminated water in the trenches at the site in an effort to avoid spreading the flow of the water from the buildings to the trenches. The problem, though, is that the water is proving difficult to freeze due to the pumping of water in and out of the building and trenches, TEPCO said. The company is actively looking for new approaches for the trench water, including upgrading the cooling capacity of the freezing system, suppressing the flow of the water, and exploring other methods of lowering the water’s temperature. TEPCO has also tried to using freezing technology to form an “ice wall” to prevent the spread of additional contamination. While the ice wall itself was having problems getting started, TEPCO indicated that the project is well underway to meetings its 2015 completion date. The ice wall freezes the surrounding soil in an effort to block the flow of groundwater, compared to the attempted freezing of water in the trenches for removal.
