Recent results on the solubility of uranium and plutonium in Savannah River Site waste supernate

Journal Article · Sat Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · Nuclear Technology

OSTI ID:264328

Hobbs, D T; Karraker, D G ^[1]

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1. Westinghouse Savannah River Co., Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River Technology Center

The high-activity waste from Savannah River Site fuel reprocessing is stored as a two-layered mixture in mild steel tanks. The solid layer contains the hydrolyzable cations, including most of the actinides; the supernatant liquid is a strong base-salt solution that includes {sup 137}Cs. To gain storage capacity, the supernate is evaporated to solids, then redissolved for waste processing. The solubility of uranium and plutonium in the supernate is low, but evaporation raises the possibility of an accumulation in the evaporator. This study of uranium and plutonium solubility by statistical design experiments and under simulated evaporator conditions found that uranium solubility decreases to 5 to 10 ppm as the supernate is evaporated; plutonium solubility increases from 1 to {approximately}10 ppm. The possibility of uranium accumulation in an evaporator exists, but the possibility of plutonium accumulation appears to be small.

• OSTI ID: 264328
• Journal Information: Nuclear Technology, Journal Name: Nuclear Technology Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 114; ISSN 0029-5450; ISSN NUTYBB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
CESIUM 137
EVAPORATION
EVAPORATORS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
MATERIALS HANDLING
PLUTONIUM
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE
SAFETY ANALYSIS
SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT
SOLUBILITY
STORAGE FACILITIES
URANIUM
VOLUME