Technetium recovery and storage at B-Plant

Technical Report · Mon Jul 20 04:00:00 EDT 1964

OSTI ID:6811762

Beard, S J; Caudill, H L

Results are presented of an engineering study of the requirements for providing Tc recovery, concentration, and storage as an incremental addition to B-Plant Phase III processing activities. Approximately 600 kg of Tc could be recovered from the Purex tank farm supernatants in place as of January, 1967 as an incremental effort to the planned 5 to 7 year Waste Management Program in B-Plant. Equipment suitable for recovering Tc from the stored supernates at rates matching the waste management Cs removal process could be installed in either 224-B or 221-B assuming cell space needs are compatible with a possible Po separations program in 224-B and the planned fission product purification program in 221-B. An additional 370 kg of Tc could be recovered from the Redox supernates and Purex sludge wastes in place at the start of waste management processing in January, 1967, but recovery costs would be higher because of the lower Tc concentrations in the waste. Approximately 100 kg per year of Tc would be available from current waste starting in January, 1967 and assuming three reactors are shut down. This Tc would go through B-Plant unextracted to the neutralized self-boiling waste stream; subsequently the supernate from these wastes would be processed through the proposed Tc recovery facility before going to in-tank solidification. An ion exchange process developed by Hanford Laboratories would be used for recovery of the technetium. Demonstration of this process was completed in 1963 with a plant scale test that recovered a kg of crude Tc from TK-103A supernate. For either a 224-B or 221-B facility the equipment would consist of an ion exchange column, a concentrator, and associated feed, waste, and aqueous makeup tanks. The 224-B installation includes the addition of ventilation equipment and some additional shielding. Low radiation levels permit use of contact maintenance techniques in 224-B while 221-B is assumed to be a standard remote-type installation.

• Research Organization: General Electric Co., Richland, WA (USA). Hanford Atomic Products Operation
• OSTI ID: 6811762
• Report Number(s): HW-83348
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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CAPITAL
COST
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
FISSION PRODUCTS
FUELS
HAPO
ION EXCHANGE
ISOTOPES
MANAGEMENT
METALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR FUELS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
REACTOR MATERIALS
RECOVERY
REFRACTORY METALS
SPENT FUELS
STORAGE
TECHNETIUM
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTE MANAGEMENT