FINAL REPORT DETERMINATION OF THE PROCESSING RATE OF RPP WTP HLW SIMULANTS USING A DURAMELTER J 1000 VITRIFICATION SYSTEM VSL-00R2590-2 REV 0 8/21/00
This report provides data, analysis, and conclusions from a series of tests that were conducted at the Vitreous State Laboratory of The Catholic University of America (VSL) to determine the melter processing rates that are achievable with RPP-WTP HLW simulants. The principal findings were presented earlier in a summary report (VSL-00R2S90-l) but the present report provides additional details. One of the most critical pieces of information in determining the required size of the RPP-WTP HLW melter is the specific glass production rate in terms of the mass of glass that can be produced per unit area of melt surface per unit time. The specific glass production rate together with the waste loading (essentially, the ratio of waste-in to glass-out, which is determined from glass formulation activities) determines the melt area that is needed to achieve a given waste processing rate with due allowance for system availability. As a consequence of the limited amount of relevant information, there exists, for good reasons, a significant disparity between design-base specific glass production rates for the RPP-WTP LAW and HLW conceptual designs (1.0 MT/m{sup 2}/d and 0.4 MT/m{sup 2}/d, respectively); furthermore, small-scale melter tests with HLW simulants that were conducted during Part A indicated typical processing rates with bubbling of around 2.0 MT/m{sup 2}/d. This range translates into more than a factor of five variation in the resultant surface area of the HLW melter, which is clearly not without significant consequence. It is clear that an undersized melter is undesirable in that it will not be able to support the required waste processing rates. It is less obvious that there are potential disadvantages associated with an oversized melter, over and above the increased capital costs. A melt surface that is consistently underutilized will have poor cold cap coverage, which will result in increased volatilization from the melt (which is generally undesirable) and increased plenum temperatures due to increased thermal radiation from the melt surface (which mayor may not be desirable but the flexibility to choose may be lost). Increased volatilization is an issue both in terms of the increased challenge to the off-gas system as well as for the ability to effectively close the recycle loops for volatile species that must be immobilized in the glass product, most notably technetium and cesium. For these reasons, improved information is needed on the specific glass production rates of RPP-WTP HLW streams in DuraMelterJ systems over a range of operating conditions. Unlike the RPP-WTP LAW program, for which a pilot melter system to provide large-scale throughout information is already in operation, there is no comparable HLW activity; the results of the present study are therefore especially important. This information will reduce project risk by reducing the uncertainty associated with the amount of conservatism that mayor may not be associated with the baseline RPP-WTP HLW melter sizing decision. After the submission of the first Test Plan for this work, the RPP-WTP requested revisions to include tests to determine the processing rates that are achievable without bubbling, which was driven by the potential advantages of omitting bubblers from the HLW melter design in terms of reduced maintenance. A further objective of this effort became the determination of whether the basis of design processing rate could be achieved without bubbling. Ideally, processing rate tests would be conducted on a full-scale RPP-WTP melter system with actual HLW materials, but that is clearly unrealistic during Part B1. As a practical compromise the processing rate determinations were made with HL W simulants on a DuraMelter J system at as close to full scale as possible and the DM 1000 system at VSL was selected for that purpose. That system has a melt surface area of 1.2 m{sup 2}, which corresponds to about one-third scale based on the specific glass processing rate of 0.4 MT/m{sup 2}/d assumed in the RPP-WTP HLW conceptual design, but would correspond to larger than full scale if the typical Part A test results of about 2.0 MT/m{sup 2}/d were realized. The DM 1000 system was used with the existing off-gas treatment system in order to expedite the collection of this information; while that system is somewhat different from the RPP-WTP conceptual design, that should have no effect on the processing rate measurements. Subsequent tasks supported the later modification of that off-gas system to obtain large-scale system performance information on the baseline off-gas design and those modifications are now complete. Work planned for Part B2 includes similar pilot-scale testing with the prototypical off-gas system. Three HLW simulant compositions were used in the present tests: the tank AZ-101 waste (the first B2 HLW feed to the RPP-WTP), the 106-C/AY-102 blend (the largest B2 HLW tank), and the HLW composition processed at West Valley.
- Research Organization:
- Hanford Site (HNF), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC27-08RV14800
- OSTI ID:
- 1034645
- Report Number(s):
- ORP-51435 Rev 0; VSL-00R2590-2, Rev. 0, 08/21/2000; TRN: US1200884
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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