Evaporation studies on Oak Ridge National Laboratory liquid low-level waste

Technical Report · Mon Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10143575· OSTI ID:10143575

Fowler, V L ^[1]; Perona, J J ^[2]

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1. PAI Corp., Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)

Evaporation studies were performed with Melton Valley storage tank liquid low-level radioactive waste concentrate and with surrogates (nonradioactive) to determine the feasibility of a proposed out-of-tank-evaporation project. Bench-scale tests indicated that volume reductions ranging from 30 to 55% could be attained. Vendor-site tests were conducted (with surrogate waste forms) using a bench-scale single-stage, low-pressure (subatmospheric), low-temperature (120 to 173{degree}F) evaporator similar to units in operation at several nuclear facilities. Vendor tests were successful; a 30% volume reduction was attained with no crystallization of solids and no foaming, as would be expected from a high pH solution. No fouling of the heat exchanger surfaces occurred during these tests. It is projected that 52,000 to 120,000 gal of water could be evaporated from the supernate stored in the Melton and Bethel Valley liquid low-level radioactive waste (LLLW) storage tanks with this type of evaporator.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 10143575
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM--12243; ON: DE93011692
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052001
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BOILING
COMPILED DATA
EVAPORATION
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
ORNL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
WASTE PROCESSING