INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGY APPLICATION IN MANAGEMENT OF REMOTE HANDLED AND LARGE SIZED MIXED WASTE FORMS

Conference · Mon Feb 04 00:00:00 EST 2008

OSTI ID:923363

LT, BLACKFORD

CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc. (CH2M HILL) plays a critical role in Hanford Site cleanup for the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of River Protection (ORP). CH2M HILL is responsible for the management of 177 tanks containing 53 million gallons of highly radioactive wastes generated from weapons production activities from 1943 through 1990. In that time, 149 single-shell tanks, ranging in capacity from 50,000 gallons to 500,000 gallons, and 28 double-shell tanks with a capacity of 1 million gallons each, were constructed and filled with toxic liquid wastes and sludges. The cleanup mission includes removing these radioactive waste solids from the single-shell tanks to double-shell tanks for staging as feed to the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) on the Hanford Site for vitrification of the wastes and disposal on the Hanford Site and Yucca Mountain repository. Concentrated efforts in retrieving residual solid and sludges from the single-shell tanks began in 2003; the first tank retrieved was C-106 in the 200 East Area of the site. The process for retrieval requires installation of modified sluicing systems, vacuum systems, and pumping systems into existing tank risers. Inherent with this process is the removal of existing pumps, thermo-couples, and agitating and monitoring equipment from the tank to be retrieved. Historically, these types of equipment have been extremely difficult to manage from the aspect of radiological dose, size, and weight of the equipment, as well as their attendant operating and support systems such as electrical distribution and control panels, filter systems, and mobile retrieval systems. Significant effort and expense were required to manage this new waste stream and resulted in several events over time that were both determined to be unsafe for workers and potentially unsound for protection of the environment. Over the last four years, processes and systems have been developed that reduce worker exposures to these hazards, eliminate violations of RCRA storage regulations, reduce costs for waste management by nearly 50 percent, and create a viable method for final treatment and disposal of these waste forms that does not impact retrieval project schedules. This paper is intended to provide information to the nuclear and environmental clean-up industry with the experience of CH2M HILL and ORP in managing these highly difficult waste streams, as well as providing an opportunity for sharing lessons learned, including technical methods and processes that may be applied at other DOE sites.

• Research Organization: Hanford Site (HNF), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE - Office of Environmental Management (EM)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC27-99RL14047
• OSTI ID: 923363
• Report Number(s): CH2M-36345-FP Rev 0; TRN: US0801816
• Resource Relation: Conference: WM08 (WASTE MANAGEMENT SYMPOSIA INC) 02/24/2008 THRU 02/28/2008 PHOENIX AZ
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
CAPACITY
LIQUID WASTES
MANAGEMENT
MONITORING
PUMPING
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REGULATIONS
REMOVAL
SCHEDULES
SLUDGES
STORAGE
TANKS
VACUUM SYSTEMS
VITRIFICATION
WASTE FORMS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WEAPONS
YUCCA MOUNTAIN