Importance

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Abstract

A vault system is disclosed herein for the disposal of hazardous waste formed from vault cells, each of which has a liquid collection and monitoring system. Each vault cell comprises a liquid impermeable floor slab having a drainage channel for collecting liquids, a wall assembly disposed around the periphery of the floor slab, a ceiling slab overlying the wall upper edge of the assembly, and a monitoring and inspection aisleway disposed between the wall assembly and radioactive waste stacked within the vault cell that encompasses the drainage channel to render it both observable and accessible. The floor slab includes a plurality of feeder channels arranged in a rectangular grid pattern that ultimately drain into the drainage channel and are arranged such that each feeder channel collects liquid from a different rectangular zone within the floor slab so that the location of a leakage condition may be generally determined by observing which feeder channel conveys liquid to the drainage channel. A drainage conduit located out of the vault cell includes a transparent trap with a color float for indicating whether liquid is present in the conduit. Each drainage conduit is drained into a manifold conduit which is in turn connected to a collection tank. The flotation device of each drain conduit is rendered accessible and directly observable by means of a subterranean tunnel that links the ends of all such drainage conduits together.

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First Claim