The WR 2 Process produces a sterile, neutral, aqueous solution suitable for disposal to a sanitary sewer. Eliminates radioactively contaminated tissues Chemistry of the WR 2 Process Hydrolysis describes a process whereby chemical bonds are broken by the insertion of water between the atoms involved in the bond. This reaction is catalyzed either by enzymes, metal salts, acids, or bases.
Bases are typically water solutions of alkali hydroxides such as sodium or potassium hydroxide.
Heating the reactants can dramatically accelerate the hydrolysis reaction. The WR 2 Process thus destroys all of the listed classes of compounds by alkaline hydrolysis, reducing them to their building blocks and in some cases degrades these even further into smaller molecules. The WR 2 Process was developed as an alkaline hydrolysis process to maximize the rapid destruction of tissue components without deleterious effects on the construction materials of the digestors, namely stainless steel and Teflon. They are linked to each other in a so called peptide bond whereby one amino acid's acidic carboxyl group is condensed to another one's amino group with elimination of water. The resulting polymer is called a polypeptide or protein.