Alternative Chemical Cleaning Methods for High Level Waste Tanks: Actual Waste Testing with SRS Tank 5F Sludge

Technical Report · Tue Aug 30 04:00:00 EDT 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1323875· OSTI ID:1323875

King, William D. ^[1]; Hay, Michael S. ^[1]

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1. Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)

Solubility testing with actual High Level Waste tank sludge has been conducted in order to evaluate several alternative chemical cleaning technologies for the dissolution of sludge residuals remaining in the tanks after the exhaustion of mechanical cleaning and sludge sluicing efforts. Tests were conducted with archived Savannah River Site (SRS) radioactive sludge solids that had been retrieved from Tank 5F in order to determine the effectiveness of an optimized, dilute oxalic/nitric acid cleaning reagent toward dissolving the bulk non-radioactive waste components. Solubility tests were performed by direct sludge contact with the oxalic/nitric acid reagent and with sludge that had been pretreated and acidified with dilute nitric acid. For comparison purposes, separate samples were also contacted with pure, concentrated oxalic acid following current baseline tank chemical cleaning methods. One goal of testing with the optimized reagent was to compare the total amounts of oxalic acid and water required for sludge dissolution using the baseline and optimized cleaning methods. A second objective was to compare the two methods with regard to the dissolution of actinide species known to be drivers for SRS tank closure Performance Assessments (PA). Additionally, solubility tests were conducted with Tank 5 sludge using acidic and caustic permanganate-based methods focused on the “targeted” dissolution of actinide species.

• Research Organization: Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
• DOE Contract Number: AC09-08SR22470
• OSTI ID: 1323875
• Report Number(s): SRNL-STI--2016-00480
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ACTINIDES
CLEANING
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DISSOLUTION
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
NITRIC ACID
OXALIC ACID
PERMANGANATES
REAGENTS
SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT
SLUDGES
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
SODIUM HYDROXIDES
SOLIDS
SOLUBILITY
TANKS
WATER
permanganate
sludge dissolution
tank heel