Chemical dissolving of sludge from a high level waste tank at the Savannah River Plant

Technical Report · Tue Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1977

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5359370· OSTI ID:5359370

Bradley, R F; Hill, Jr, A J

The concept for decontamination and retirement of radioactive liquid waste tanks at the Savannah River Plant (SRP) involves hydraulic slurrying to remove most of the settled sludges followed by chemical dissolving of residual sludges. Dissolving tests were carried out with small samples of sludge from SRP Tank 16H. Over 95 percent of the sludge was dissolved by 8 wt percent oxalic acid at 85/sup 0/C with agitation in a two-step dissolving process (50 hours per step) and an initial reagent-to-sludge volume of 20. Oxalic acid does not attack the waste tank material of construction, appears to be compatible with the existing waste farm processes and equipment after neutralization, and with future processes planned for fixation of the waste into a high-integrity solid for packaging and shipping.

• Research Organization: Du Pont de Nemours (E.I.) and Co., Aiken, S.C. (USA). Savannah River Lab.
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-02-0016
• OSTI ID: 5359370
• Report Number(s): DP-1471
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052002* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Disposal & Storage
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
CARBOXYLIC ACIDS
CHEMICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHEMISTRY
CLEANING
CONTAINERS
CORROSION
DECOMPOSITION
DECONTAMINATION
DICARBOXYLIC ACIDS
DISPERSIONS
DISSOLUTION
MANAGEMENT
MIXTURES
ORGANIC ACIDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXALIC ACID
RADIATION CHEMISTRY
RADIATION EFFECTS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE
RADIOLYSIS
SLUDGES
SLURRIES
STORAGE
SUSPENSIONS
TANKS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE STORAGE