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Title: Vitrification of Hanford Tank Waste 241-AP-105 in a Continuous Laboratory-Scale Melter

Abstract

Low-activity waste (LAW) stored in underground tanks on the Hanford site in Washington State is planned to be filtered for solids removal and processed through ion exchange columns for cesium removal at the Low-Activity Waste Pretreatment System facility. These pretreatment steps will allow the waste to be transferred to the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant LAW facility for immobilization into glass. The liquid waste will be combined with glass-forming chemicals (GFCs) to form a waste feed slurry that can be fed to electric melters for vitrification. The process of continuously converting the aqueous feed slurry into a melt is dynamic and includes multiple reactions, degassing, and dissolution processes that depend on heat from the melt below. In this conversion process, waste components are partitioned into one of two streams: glass and off-gas. Processing information and chemical information associated with these waste product streams has been requested by Washington River Protection Solutions for actual tank waste from tank 241-AP-105 (referred to as AP-105). To acquire this type of information, a small-scale melter system was desired that would not require high volumes of input waste or the large resource commitment of a full-scale melter system, while also providing dynamic informationmore » that would be difficult to determine from batch reactions in a crucible system. A continuous laboratory-scale melter (CLSM), has been designed to operate with a continuous feeding process, while periodically pouring glass product and collecting off-gas. The CLSM vessel has been sized to collect the relevant process and chemical information from obtainable volumes of AP-105 waste samples. Two CLSMs were constructed: one in a non-radioactive environment for processing waste simulants and another in a fume hood capable of handling radioactive material for processing actual Hanford tank waste. This dual-system setup allowed for comparison between simulated and real tank waste with essentially identical test equipment. AP-105 waste simulant was first tested in the non-radioactive CLSM to determine the processability and desired operating window for the actual tank waste. Rhenium (Re) was added to the simulant to act as a surrogate for technetium-99 (99Tc), a key waste component found in the actual tank waste. The partitioning of Re into the glass and off-gas products during the continuous feeding of simulant was determined, which allowed the Re retention, the mass flow rate of Re out of the CLSM via the glass product with respect to the mass flow rate of Re into the CLSM via the feed slurry, to be calculated. Key processing results and the average Re retention, from the CLSM test run with AP-105 simulant feed slurry are shown in Table ES.1.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  2. AECOM Energy & Construction (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1476729
Report Number(s):
PNNL-27775
DOE Contract Number:  
AC05-76RL01830
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Citation Formats

Dixon, Derek R., Stewart, Cody M., Venarsky, John J., Peterson, Jacob A., Hall, Gabriel B., Levitskaia, Tatiana G., Allred, Jarrod R., Eaton, William C., Lang, Jesse B., Hall, Mark A., Cutforth, Derek A., Rovira, Amy M., and Peterson, Reid A. Vitrification of Hanford Tank Waste 241-AP-105 in a Continuous Laboratory-Scale Melter. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.2172/1476729.
Dixon, Derek R., Stewart, Cody M., Venarsky, John J., Peterson, Jacob A., Hall, Gabriel B., Levitskaia, Tatiana G., Allred, Jarrod R., Eaton, William C., Lang, Jesse B., Hall, Mark A., Cutforth, Derek A., Rovira, Amy M., & Peterson, Reid A. Vitrification of Hanford Tank Waste 241-AP-105 in a Continuous Laboratory-Scale Melter. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1476729
Dixon, Derek R., Stewart, Cody M., Venarsky, John J., Peterson, Jacob A., Hall, Gabriel B., Levitskaia, Tatiana G., Allred, Jarrod R., Eaton, William C., Lang, Jesse B., Hall, Mark A., Cutforth, Derek A., Rovira, Amy M., and Peterson, Reid A. 2018. "Vitrification of Hanford Tank Waste 241-AP-105 in a Continuous Laboratory-Scale Melter". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1476729. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1476729.
@article{osti_1476729,
title = {Vitrification of Hanford Tank Waste 241-AP-105 in a Continuous Laboratory-Scale Melter},
author = {Dixon, Derek R. and Stewart, Cody M. and Venarsky, John J. and Peterson, Jacob A. and Hall, Gabriel B. and Levitskaia, Tatiana G. and Allred, Jarrod R. and Eaton, William C. and Lang, Jesse B. and Hall, Mark A. and Cutforth, Derek A. and Rovira, Amy M. and Peterson, Reid A.},
abstractNote = {Low-activity waste (LAW) stored in underground tanks on the Hanford site in Washington State is planned to be filtered for solids removal and processed through ion exchange columns for cesium removal at the Low-Activity Waste Pretreatment System facility. These pretreatment steps will allow the waste to be transferred to the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant LAW facility for immobilization into glass. The liquid waste will be combined with glass-forming chemicals (GFCs) to form a waste feed slurry that can be fed to electric melters for vitrification. The process of continuously converting the aqueous feed slurry into a melt is dynamic and includes multiple reactions, degassing, and dissolution processes that depend on heat from the melt below. In this conversion process, waste components are partitioned into one of two streams: glass and off-gas. Processing information and chemical information associated with these waste product streams has been requested by Washington River Protection Solutions for actual tank waste from tank 241-AP-105 (referred to as AP-105). To acquire this type of information, a small-scale melter system was desired that would not require high volumes of input waste or the large resource commitment of a full-scale melter system, while also providing dynamic information that would be difficult to determine from batch reactions in a crucible system. A continuous laboratory-scale melter (CLSM), has been designed to operate with a continuous feeding process, while periodically pouring glass product and collecting off-gas. The CLSM vessel has been sized to collect the relevant process and chemical information from obtainable volumes of AP-105 waste samples. Two CLSMs were constructed: one in a non-radioactive environment for processing waste simulants and another in a fume hood capable of handling radioactive material for processing actual Hanford tank waste. This dual-system setup allowed for comparison between simulated and real tank waste with essentially identical test equipment. AP-105 waste simulant was first tested in the non-radioactive CLSM to determine the processability and desired operating window for the actual tank waste. Rhenium (Re) was added to the simulant to act as a surrogate for technetium-99 (99Tc), a key waste component found in the actual tank waste. The partitioning of Re into the glass and off-gas products during the continuous feeding of simulant was determined, which allowed the Re retention, the mass flow rate of Re out of the CLSM via the glass product with respect to the mass flow rate of Re into the CLSM via the feed slurry, to be calculated. Key processing results and the average Re retention, from the CLSM test run with AP-105 simulant feed slurry are shown in Table ES.1.},
doi = {10.2172/1476729},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1476729}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Aug 28 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Tue Aug 28 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}