Evaluation of defense-waste glass produced by full-scale vitrification equipment

Technical Report · Tue Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6270418· OSTI ID:6270418

Lukacs, J M; Petkus, L L; Mellinger, G B

Three full-scale vitrification processes at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory produced over 67,000 kg of simulated nuclear-waste glass from March 1979 to August 1980. Samples were analyzed to monitor process operation and evaluate the resulting glass product. These processes are: Spray Calciner/In-Can Melter (SC/ICM); Spray Calciner/Calcine-Fed Ceramic Melter (SC/CFCM); and Liquid-Fed Ceramic Melter (LFCM). Waste components in the process feed varied less than +- 10%. The SC/ICM and SC/CFCM which use separate waste and frit feed systems showed larger glass compositional variation than the LFCM, which processed only premixed feed during this period. The SC/ICM and SC/CFCM product contained significant amounts of acmite crystals, while the LFCM product was largely amorphous. In addition, the lower portion of all SC/ICM-filled canisters contained a zone rich in waste components. A product chemical durability as determined by pH4 and soxhlet leach tests varied considerably. Aside from increased durability under pH4 conditions with decreasing waste content, glass composition, microstructure and melting process did not correlate with glass durability. For all samples analyzed, the weight loss under pH4 conditions ranged from 17.7 to 85.2 wt %. Soxhlet conditions produced weight losses from 1.78 to 3.56 wt %.

• Research Organization: Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs., Richland, WA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 6270418
• Report Number(s): PNL-3550; ON: DE81030408
• 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
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360603* -- Materials-- Properties
CERAMIC MELTERS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
COHERENT SCATTERING
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DATA
DENSITY
DIFFRACTION
DISSOLUTION
ELECTRIC FURNACES
EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY
EQUIPMENT
EVALUATION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FURNACES
GLASS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
INFORMATION
LEACHING
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
MICROSTRUCTURE
NUMERICAL DATA
PH VALUE
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLASMA
PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SCATTERING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLIDIFICATION
SPECTROSCOPY
VITRIFICATION
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTES
X-RAY DIFFRACTION