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Title: TESTING OF ENHANCED CHEMICAL CLEANING OF SRS ACTUAL WASTE TANK 5F AND TANK 12H SLUDGES

Abstract

Forty three of the High Level Waste (HLW) tanks at the Savannah River Site (SRS) have internal structures that hinder removal of the last approximately five thousand gallons of waste sludge solely by mechanical means. Chemical cleaning can be utilized to dissolve the sludge heel with oxalic acid (OA) and pump the material to a separate waste tank in preparation for final disposition. This dissolved sludge material is pH adjusted downstream of the dissolution process, precipitating the sludge components along with sodium oxalate solids. The large quantities of sodium oxalate and other metal oxalates formed impact downstream processes by requiring additional washing during sludge batch preparation and increase the amount of material that must be processed in the tank farm evaporator systems and the Saltstone Processing Facility. Enhanced Chemical Cleaning (ECC) was identified as a potential method for greatly reducing the impact of oxalate additions to the SRS Tank Farms without adding additional components to the waste that would extend processing or increase waste form volumes. In support of Savannah River Site (SRS) tank closure efforts, the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) conducted Real Waste Testing (RWT) to evaluate an alternative to the baseline 8 wt. % OA chemical cleaningmore » technology for tank sludge heel removal. The baseline OA technology results in the addition of significant volumes of oxalate salts to the SRS tank farm and there is insufficient space to accommodate the neutralized streams resulting from the treatment of the multiple remaining waste tanks requiring closure. ECC is a promising alternative to bulk OA cleaning, which utilizes a more dilute OA (nominally 2 wt. % at a pH of around 2) and an oxalate destruction technology. The technology is being adapted by AREVA from their decontamination technology for Nuclear Power Plant secondary side scale removal. This report contains results from the SRNL small scale testing of the ECC process using SRS sludge tank sample material. A Task Technical and Quality Assurance Plan (TTQAP) details the experimental plan as outlined by the Technical Task Request (TTR). The TTR identifies that the data produced by this testing and results included in this report will support the technical baseline with portions having a safety class functional classification. The primary goals for SRNL RWT are as follows: (1) to confirm ECC performance with real tank sludge samples, (2) to determine the impact of ECC on fate of actinides and the other sludge metals, and (3) to determine changes, if any, in solids flow and settling behavior.« less

Authors:
;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1023616
Report Number(s):
SRNL-STI-2011-00360
TRN: US1104685
DOE Contract Number:  
DE-AC09-08SR22470
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES; 21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS; ACTINIDES; CLEANING; CLOSURES; DECONTAMINATION; DISSOLUTION; EVAPORATORS; NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS; OXALATES; OXALIC ACID; QUALITY ASSURANCE; REMOVAL; SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT; SLUDGES; SODIUM; SOLIDS FLOW; STORAGE FACILITIES; TANKS; TESTING; WASHING; WASTE FORMS; WASTES

Citation Formats

Martino, C, and King, W. TESTING OF ENHANCED CHEMICAL CLEANING OF SRS ACTUAL WASTE TANK 5F AND TANK 12H SLUDGES. United States: N. p., 2011. Web. doi:10.2172/1023616.
Martino, C, & King, W. TESTING OF ENHANCED CHEMICAL CLEANING OF SRS ACTUAL WASTE TANK 5F AND TANK 12H SLUDGES. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1023616
Martino, C, and King, W. 2011. "TESTING OF ENHANCED CHEMICAL CLEANING OF SRS ACTUAL WASTE TANK 5F AND TANK 12H SLUDGES". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1023616. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1023616.
@article{osti_1023616,
title = {TESTING OF ENHANCED CHEMICAL CLEANING OF SRS ACTUAL WASTE TANK 5F AND TANK 12H SLUDGES},
author = {Martino, C and King, W},
abstractNote = {Forty three of the High Level Waste (HLW) tanks at the Savannah River Site (SRS) have internal structures that hinder removal of the last approximately five thousand gallons of waste sludge solely by mechanical means. Chemical cleaning can be utilized to dissolve the sludge heel with oxalic acid (OA) and pump the material to a separate waste tank in preparation for final disposition. This dissolved sludge material is pH adjusted downstream of the dissolution process, precipitating the sludge components along with sodium oxalate solids. The large quantities of sodium oxalate and other metal oxalates formed impact downstream processes by requiring additional washing during sludge batch preparation and increase the amount of material that must be processed in the tank farm evaporator systems and the Saltstone Processing Facility. Enhanced Chemical Cleaning (ECC) was identified as a potential method for greatly reducing the impact of oxalate additions to the SRS Tank Farms without adding additional components to the waste that would extend processing or increase waste form volumes. In support of Savannah River Site (SRS) tank closure efforts, the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) conducted Real Waste Testing (RWT) to evaluate an alternative to the baseline 8 wt. % OA chemical cleaning technology for tank sludge heel removal. The baseline OA technology results in the addition of significant volumes of oxalate salts to the SRS tank farm and there is insufficient space to accommodate the neutralized streams resulting from the treatment of the multiple remaining waste tanks requiring closure. ECC is a promising alternative to bulk OA cleaning, which utilizes a more dilute OA (nominally 2 wt. % at a pH of around 2) and an oxalate destruction technology. The technology is being adapted by AREVA from their decontamination technology for Nuclear Power Plant secondary side scale removal. This report contains results from the SRNL small scale testing of the ECC process using SRS sludge tank sample material. A Task Technical and Quality Assurance Plan (TTQAP) details the experimental plan as outlined by the Technical Task Request (TTR). The TTR identifies that the data produced by this testing and results included in this report will support the technical baseline with portions having a safety class functional classification. The primary goals for SRNL RWT are as follows: (1) to confirm ECC performance with real tank sludge samples, (2) to determine the impact of ECC on fate of actinides and the other sludge metals, and (3) to determine changes, if any, in solids flow and settling behavior.},
doi = {10.2172/1023616},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1023616}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Aug 22 00:00:00 EDT 2011},
month = {Mon Aug 22 00:00:00 EDT 2011}
}