Patent ID: 7365237

Claim:
A method for treating an article that includes a radioactive material, the method including the steps of: (a) loading the article into a containment area defined in a treatment vessel; (b) while the article is being held in the containment area, tilting the treatment vessel from a loading position to a treatment position to place the article in contact with a liquid reactant metal in the treatment vessel to decompose the radioactive material in the article into radioactive material decomposition constituents dispersed in the liquid reactant metal; (c) producing a storage mixture including the radioactive material decomposition constituents dispersed in the liquid reactant metal together with radioactive emission control materials, the radioactive emission control materials being present in the storage mixture in an effective ratio with radioactive material decomposition constituents in the storage mixture to limit radiation emissions from the storage mixture; and (d) cooling the storage mixture in one or more molds to form a solidified storage product for the radioactive material decomposition constituents.