Hanford Waste Physical and Rheological Properties: Data and Gaps

Technical Report · Mon Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1025093· OSTI ID:1025093

Wells, Beric E; Kurath, Dean E; Mahoney, Lenna A; Onishi, Yasuo; Huckaby, James L; Cooley, Scott K; Burns, Carolyn A; Buck, Edgar C; Tingey, Joel M; Daniel, Richard C; Anderson, K K

The Hanford Site in Washington State manages 177 underground storage tanks containing approximately 250,000 m3 of waste generated during past defense reprocessing and waste management operations. These tanks contain a mixture of sludge, saltcake and supernatant liquids. The insoluble sludge fraction of the waste consists of metal oxides and hydroxides and contains the bulk of many radionuclides such as the transuranic components and 90Sr. The saltcake, generated by extensive evaporation of aqueous solutions, consists primarily of dried sodium salts. The supernates consist of concentrated (5-15 M) aqueous solutions of sodium and potassium salts. The 177 storage tanks include 149 single-shell tanks (SSTs) and 28 double -hell tanks (DSTs). Ultimately the wastes need to be retrieved from the tanks for treatment and disposal. The SSTs contain minimal amounts of liquid wastes, and the Tank Operations Contractor is continuing a program of moving solid wastes from SSTs to interim storage in the DSTs. The Hanford DST system provides the staging location for waste feed delivery to the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of River Protection’s (ORP) Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The WTP is being designed and constructed to pretreat and then vitrify a large portion of the wastes in Hanford’s 177 underground waste storage tanks.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1025093
• Report Number(s): PNNL-20646; EY4049110
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS
EVAPORATION
HYDROXIDES
Hanford waste
LIQUID WASTES
MIXTURES
OXIDES
POTASSIUM
RADIOISOTOPES
REPROCESSING
SLUDGES
SODIUM
SOLID WASTES
STORAGE
TANKS
UNDERGROUND STORAGE
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTE STORAGE
rheological properties
sludge
storage tanks