FW: Radiation Waste - Microtiter Plates

["Aronson" <Aronson@mitotix.com>]

To:  Multiple Recipients of list.

My address is aronson@mitotix.com
_______________________________________________________________________________
To: listserv@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
From: Aronson on Wed, Feb 19, 1997 1:46 PM
Subject: Radiation Waste - Microtiter Plates

We will be generating thousands of 96-well microtiter plates containing a
solid scintilant bead (SPA), tritium and 0.1 ml of non-RCRA liquid for each
well (approx. 9.6 ml per plate). Each plate is individually sealed with an
adhesive; therefore trapping the 9.6 mls of liquid within the plate. This
waste is not scintilation waste; there is no scintilation fluid.

I plan to pack a "flex-drum" (fiber equivalent) with stacks of these plates. I
expect my 30 gallon drum to hold approx. 750 plates, weigh about 200 lbs and
have about 20 mCi tritium.

Do any of you generate this type of waste? What contractor do you use, waste
process (incineration?) and cost???

At this time I have a dialogue going with SEG (Scientific Ecology Group) -
they are worried about the explosiveness (??) of the plate because of the 9.6
ml of trapped liquid expanding during the incineration process. Incineration
costs roughly $6 to $7.75 per lb; though SEG wants to charge us $9.50 per lb
to compact it prior to incineration to eliminate the "explosion" risk.

Do you think there is "explosion" risk with 0.1 ml per well X 96 wells? Is
there any evidence for this?

Thanks for your suggestions.