Removal of radionuclides from the water-soluble fraction of Hanford Nuclear Defense Wastes

Conference · Fri Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:5417441

Strachan, D M; Schulz, W W

The current Hanford Waste Management Program has operated since 1968 to remove the bulk of the long-lived heat emitters /sup 90/Sr and /sup 137/Cs from stored high-level wastes. The liquid waste remaining after removal of /sup 90/Sr and /sup 137/Cs is returned to underground tanks for eventual evaporation to damp solid salt cake. Hanford salt cake is an admixture of large amounts of NaNO/sub 3/ with minor amounts of NaAl(OH)/sub 4/, Na/sub 2/CO/sub 3/, Na/sub 2/CrO/sub 4/, Na/sub 3/PO/sub 4/, Na/sub 2/SO/sub 4/, and NaOH. Small amounts of /sup 90/Sr, /sup 137/Cs, /sup 99/Tc and other radionuclides are also associated with the salt cake. Results of successful bench-scale radionuclide removal tests with various actual salt cakes and certain liquid waste solutions representative of residual liquids were reported earlier. This paper describes conditions and results of recent hot cell tests of the complete Hanford Radionuclide Removal Process. These advanced tests, made with actual residual liquid containing large concentrations of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and other organic compounds, provided a rigorous and convincing proof of the process flowsheet.

• Research Organization: Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs., Richland, WA (USA); Atomics International Div., Richland, WA (USA). Rockwell Hanford Operations
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-77RL01030
• OSTI ID: 5417441
• Report Number(s): RHO-SA-145; CONF-800313-8
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052001* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Processing
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES
ALKALINE EARTH ISOTOPES
AMINO ACIDS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CARBOXYLIC ACIDS
CESIUM 137
CESIUM ISOTOPES
CHELATING AGENTS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
DATA
DIAGRAMS
EDTA
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLOWSHEETS
HAPO
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
HOT CELLS
HOURS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
INFORMATION
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LABORATORY EQUIPMENT
LIQUID WASTES
MANAGEMENT
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
ORGANIC ACIDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOISOTOPES
REMOVAL
SALTS
SOLIDIFICATION
STRONTIUM 90
STRONTIUM ISOTOPES
TECHNETIUM 99
TECHNETIUM ISOTOPES
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES