Division of Waste Management, Production, and Reprocessing programs progress report for January--June 1977

Technical Report · Fri Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1977

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7085599· OSTI ID:7085599

Lerch, R. E. ^[1]

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1. comp.

Construction of the 100-kg/day Radioactive Acid Digestion Test Unit (RADTU) facility was completed in June 1977 with the exception of the acid recycle mode, which is being added to the originally planned unit. Engineering tests of the acid recycle flowsheet, using test equipment one-quarter scale of the proposed acid recycle addition to RADTU, confirmed the validity of the zero effluent flowsheet proposed for RADTU. Studies were continued on immobilization of wastes in cement. Cement products containing up to 16 wt percent boric acid were successfully made and tested for compressive strength. The thermal characteristics of various waste products were determined using a differential scanning calorimeter. The ignition temperatures for bitumen and bitumen products containing salts, including sodium nitrate, were found to be about 400/sup 0/C. There was no significant lowering of the ignition temperature below that of bitumen itself upon incorporation of these salts into bitumen. Urea-formaldehyde products exhibited ignition temperatures around 300/sup 0/C. Ignition temperatures of resins (anion and cation) were relatively high (400 to 600/sup 0/C) except for anion exchange resin in the nitrate form which ignited about 250/sup 0/C. Leach tests were performed on various waste products immobilized in cement, urea-formaldehyde, and bitumen. The results indicated that cement solids exhibited the lowest leach rates for leaching of uranyl nitrate from immobilized anion exchange resin and from immobilized acid digestion residue. Leach rates of cesium and strontium from immobilized anion exchange resin were lowest for bitumen products. Work is proceeding on development of a process to reduce the volume of mercuric nitrate - nitric acid off-gas scrub solution without loss of the iodine. Preliminary results are promising and indicate that volume reductions of at least 10-fold can be achieved with as little as 0.01 percent of the iodine being volatilized.

• Research Organization: Hanford Engineering Development Lab., Richland, Wash. (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-14-2170
• OSTI ID: 7085599
• Report Number(s): HEDL-TME-77-74
• 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
ACTINIDE COMPOUNDS
ALDEHYDES
ALKALI METALS
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
AMIDES
BITUMENS
BUILDING MATERIALS
CARBONIC ACID DERIVATIVES
CEMENTS
CESIUM
DIGESTION
DISSOLUTION
ELEMENTS
FORMALDEHYDE
LEACHING
LIQUID WASTES
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
METALS
NITRATES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLID WASTES
SOLIDIFICATION
STRONTIUM
TAR
URANIUM COMPOUNDS
URANYL COMPOUNDS
URANYL NITRATES
UREA
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTES