In-service Inspection of Radioactive Waste Tanks at the Savannah River Site – 15410

Conference · Mon Jan 12 04:00:00 EST 2015

OSTI ID:1174132

Wiersma, Bruce ^[1]; Maryak, Matthew ^[2]; Baxter, Lindsay ^[3]; Harris, Stephen ^[1]; Elder, James ^[1]

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1. Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)
2. Savannah River Remediation, LLC., Aiken, SC (United States)
3. Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)

Liquid radioactive wastes from the Savannah River Site (SRS) separation process are stored in large underground carbon steel tanks. The high level wastes are processed in several of the tanks and then transferred by piping to other site facilities for further processing before they are stabilized in a vitrified or grout waste form. Based on waste removal and processing schedules, many of the tanks will be required to be in service for times exceeding the initial intended life. Until the waste is removed from storage, transferred, and processed, the materials and structures of the tanks must maintain a confinement function by providing a barrier to the environment and by maintaining acceptable structural stability during design basis events, which include loadings from both normal service and abnormal (e.g., earthquake) conditions. A structural integrity program is in place to maintain the structural and leak integrity functions of these waste tanks throughout their intended service life. In-service inspection (ISI) is an essential element of a comprehensive structural integrity program for the waste tanks at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The ISI program was developed to determine the degree of degradation the waste tanks have experienced due to service conditions. As a result of the inspections, an assessment can be made of the effectiveness of corrosion controls for the waste chemistry, which precludes accelerated localized and general corrosion of the waste tanks. Ultrasonic inspections (UT) are performed to detect and quantify the degree of general wall thinning, pitting and cracking as a measure of tank degradation. The results from these inspections through 2013, for the 27 Type III/IIIA tanks, indicate no reportable in-service corrosion degradation in the primary tank (i.e., general, pitting, or cracking). The average wall thickness for all tanks remains above the manufactured nominal thickness minus 0.25 millimeter and the largest pit identified is approximately 1.70 millimeter deep (i.e., less than 10% through-wall). Improvements to the inspection program were recently instituted to provide additional confidence in the degradation rates. Thickness measurements from a single vertical strip along the accessible height of the primary tank have been used as a baseline to compare historical measurements. Changes in wall thickness and pit depths along this vertical strip are utilized to estimate the rate of corrosion degradation. An independent review of the ISI program methodology, results, and path forward was held in August 2009. The review recommended statistical sampling of the tanks to improve the confidence of the single strip inspection program. The statistical sampling plan required that SRS increase the amount of area scanned per tank. Therefore, in addition to the baseline vertical strip that is obtained for historical comparisons, four additional randomly selected vertical strips are inspected. To date, a total of 104 independent vertical strips along the height of the primary tank have been completed. A statistical analysis of the data indicates that at this coverage level there is a 99.5% confidence level that one of the worst 5% of all the vertical strips was inspected. That is, there is a relatively high likelihood that the SRS inspection program has covered one of the most corroded areas of any of the Type III/IIIA waste tanks. These data further support the conclusion that there are no significant indications of wall thinning or pitting. Random sampling will continue to increase the confidence that one of the worst 5% has been inspected. In order to obtain the additional vertical strips, and minimize budget and schedule impacts, data collection speed for the UT system was optimized. Prior to 2009, the system collected data at a rate of 32 square centimeters per minute. The scan rate was increased to 129 - 160 square centimeters per minute by increasing the scanner step and pixel sizes in the data acquisition set-up. Laboratory testing was utilized to optimize the scan index/pixel size such that the requirements for wall thinning and pit detection were still maintained. SRS continues to evaluate improvements to ultrasonic equipment.

• Research Organization: Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC09-08SR22470
• OSTI ID: 1174132
• Report Number(s): SRNL-STI--2015-00006
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
CARBON STEELS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CORROSION
CORROSION PROTECTION
CRACKS
DATA ACQUISITION
DEPTH
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
IN-SERVICE INSPECTION
LEAKS
LIQUID WASTES
PITTING CORROSION
RANDOMNESS
SAMPLING
SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT
SERVICE LIFE
STABILITY
STORAGE
TANKS
THICKNESS
ULTRASONIC TESTING
UNDERGROUND
WALLS