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Title: Washing and caustic leaching of Hanford tank sludges: Results of FY 1995 studies

Abstract

During the past few years, the primary mission at the US Department of Energy`s Hanford Site has changed from producing plutonium to environmental restoration. Large volumes of high-level radioactive wastes (HLW), generated during past Pu production and other operations, are stored in underground tanks on site. The current plan for remediating the Hanford tank farms consists of waste retrieval, pretreatment, treatment (immobilization), and disposal. The HLW will be immobilized in a borosilicate glass matrix; the resulting glass canisters will then be disposed of in a geologic repository. Because of the expected high cost of HLW immobilization and disposal, pretreatment processes will be implemented to reduce the volume of borosilicate glass produced in processing the tank wastes. This document describes sludge washing and caustic leaching tests conducted in FY 1995 at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) at the request of Westinghouse Hanford Company. These tests were performed using sludges from seven Hanford waste tanks -- B-111, BX-107, C-103, S-104, SY-103, T-104, and T-111. The primary and secondary types of waste stored in each of these tanks are given in Table 1. 1. The data collected in this effort will be used to support the March 1998 Tri-Party Agreement decision on themore » extent of pretreatment to be performed on the Hanford tank sludges (Ecology, EPA, and DOE 1994).« less

Authors:
; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
105650
Report Number(s):
PNL-10712
ON: DE95017592; TRN: 95:020576
DOE Contract Number:
AC06-76RL01830
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 11 Aug 1995
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
05 NUCLEAR FUELS; SLUDGES; RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING; TANKS; WASHING; HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES; LEACHING

Citation Formats

Rapko, B.M., Lumetta, G.J., and Wagner, M.J. Washing and caustic leaching of Hanford tank sludges: Results of FY 1995 studies. United States: N. p., 1995. Web. doi:10.2172/105650.
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Rapko, B.M., Lumetta, G.J., & Wagner, M.J. Washing and caustic leaching of Hanford tank sludges: Results of FY 1995 studies. United States. doi:10.2172/105650.
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Rapko, B.M., Lumetta, G.J., and Wagner, M.J. Fri . "Washing and caustic leaching of Hanford tank sludges: Results of FY 1995 studies". United States. doi:10.2172/105650. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/105650.
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@article{osti_105650,
title = {Washing and caustic leaching of Hanford tank sludges: Results of FY 1995 studies},
author = {Rapko, B.M. and Lumetta, G.J. and Wagner, M.J.},
abstractNote = {During the past few years, the primary mission at the US Department of Energy`s Hanford Site has changed from producing plutonium to environmental restoration. Large volumes of high-level radioactive wastes (HLW), generated during past Pu production and other operations, are stored in underground tanks on site. The current plan for remediating the Hanford tank farms consists of waste retrieval, pretreatment, treatment (immobilization), and disposal. The HLW will be immobilized in a borosilicate glass matrix; the resulting glass canisters will then be disposed of in a geologic repository. Because of the expected high cost of HLW immobilization and disposal, pretreatment processes will be implemented to reduce the volume of borosilicate glass produced in processing the tank wastes. This document describes sludge washing and caustic leaching tests conducted in FY 1995 at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) at the request of Westinghouse Hanford Company. These tests were performed using sludges from seven Hanford waste tanks -- B-111, BX-107, C-103, S-104, SY-103, T-104, and T-111. The primary and secondary types of waste stored in each of these tanks are given in Table 1. 1. The data collected in this effort will be used to support the March 1998 Tri-Party Agreement decision on the extent of pretreatment to be performed on the Hanford tank sludges (Ecology, EPA, and DOE 1994).},
doi = {10.2172/105650},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Aug 11 00:00:00 EDT 1995},
month = {Fri Aug 11 00:00:00 EDT 1995}
}
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Technical Report:
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DOI:  10.2172/105650
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  • ; ; ; ...
    During the past few years, the primary mission and the US DOE Hanford site has changed from producing plutonium to restoring the environment. Large volumes of high-level radioactive wastes (HLW), generated during past Pu production and other operations, are stored in underground tanks on site. The current plan for remediating the Hanford tank farms consists of waste retrieval, pretreatment, processing (immobilization), and disposal. The HLW will be immobilized in a borosilicate glass matrix; the resulting glass canisters will then be disposed of in a geologic repository. Because of the expected high cost of HLW vitrification and geologic disposal, pretreatment processesmore » will be implemented to reduce the volume of borosilicate glass in disposing of the tank wastes. This report describes the sludge washing and caustic leaching tests conducted at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in FY 1996. These tests supported the development of the baseline Hanford tank sludge pretreatment flowsheet.« less

  • ; ; ; ...
    During the past few years, the primary mission at the US Department of Energy`s Hanford Site has changed from producing plutonium to restoring the environment. Large volumes of high-level radioactive wastes (HLW), generated during past Pu production and other operations, are stored in underground tanks on site. The current plan for remediating the Hanford tank farms consists of waste retrieval, pretreatment, treatment (immobilization), and disposal. The HLW will be immobilized in a borosilicate glass matrix and then disposed of in a geologic repository. Because of the expected high cost of HLW vitrification and geologic disposal, pretreatment processes will be implementedmore » to reduce the volume of borosilicate glass produced in disposing of the tank wastes. On this basis, a pretreatment plan is being developed. This report describes the sludge washing and caustic leaching test conducted to create a Hanford tank sludge pretreatment flowsheet.« less

  • ; ; ; ...
    Sludge washing and parametric caustic leaching tests were performed on sludge samples tiom five Hanford tanks: B-101, BX-1 10, BX-112, C-102, and S-101. These studies examined the effects of both dilute hydroxide washing and caustic leaching on the composition of the residual sludge solids. ` Dilute hydroxide washing removed from <1 to 25% of the Al, -20 to 45% of the Cr, -25 to 97% of the P, and 63 to 99% of the Na from the Hdord tank sludge samples examined. The partial removal of these elements was likely due to the presence of water-soluble sodium salts of aluminate,more » chromate, hydroxide, nitrate, nitrite, and phosphate, either in the interstitial liquid or as dried salts.« less

  • ; ; ; ...
    The current plan for remediating the Hanford tank farms consists of waste retrieval, pretreatment, treatment (immobilization), and disposal. The tank wastes will be partitioned into high-level and low-level fractions. The HLW will be immobilized in a borosilicate glass matrix; the resulting glass canisters will then be disposed of in a geologic repository. Because of the expected high cost of HLW vitrification and geologic disposal, pretreatment processes will be implemented to reduce the volume of immobilized high-level waste (IHLW). Caustic leaching (sometimes referred to as enhanced sludge washing or ESW) represents the baseline method for pretreating Hanford tank sludges. Caustic leachingmore » is expected to remove a large fraction of the Al, which is present in large quantities in Hanford tank sludges. A significant portion of the P is also expected to be removed from the sludge by metathesis of water-insoluble metal phosphates to insoluble hydroxides and soluble Na{sub 3}PO{sub 4}. Similar metathesis reactions can occur for insoluble sulfate salts, allowing the removal of sulfate from the HLW stream. This report describes the sludge washing and caustic leaching tests performed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in FY 1996. The sludges used in this study were taken from Hanford tanks AN-104, BY-108, S-101, and S-111.« less

  • Plans for disposing of the high-level radioactive wastes at the Hanford Site call for retrieving, pretreating, and finally immobilizing the wastes in a glass matrix. Since the cost for vitrifying and disposing of high-level wastes will be very great, pretreatment processes are being developed to reduce their volume. The baseline method for pretreating Hanford tank sludges is caustic leaching. Earlier studies with Hanford tank-sludge simulants and with actual Hanford tank sludges have indicated that treating water-washed and caustic-leached solids with oxidants can significantly increase the removal of Cr. Permanganate and ozone have been shown to be generally the most rapidmore » and effective chemical agents for this purpose. The work described in this report continues to examine the effectiveness of solubilizing additional Cr from Hanford tank wastes by oxidation of the water-insoluble solids from tanks U-108, U-109, and SX-108 under alkaline conditions. The current study confirms that permanganate is highly effective at removing chromium from water solids under alkaline conditions, with Cr removals of up to 99+%. Elemental oxygen can also be highly effective, with removals up to 97+%.« less