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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Conversion of Hanford salt cake to glass: laboratory studies

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7352152· OSTI ID:7352152

Approximately 140 million liters of solid salt cake (mainly NaNO/sub 3/), produced by evaporation of aged, alkaline high-level wastes, will be stored in underground tanks when the present Hanford Waste Management Program is completed in the early 1980's. These solid wastes can be converted to silicate-based glasses by melting them either at 1200 to 1300/sup 0/C with appropriate amounts of sand and lime (soda-lime formulation) or at 1000 to 1100/sup 0/C with appropriate amounts of Columbia River basalt and B/sub 2/O/sub 3/ (basalt formulation). Both formulations yield dense, immobile glasses of low water leachability (10/sup -7/ to 10/sup -6/ g cm/sup -2/ day/sup -1/) suitable for terminal storage. The soda-lime formulation is presently preferred over the basalt formulation because it can accommodate more salt cake (50 wt percent versus 30 to 40 wt percent) while yielding a glass whose volume is 10 to 20 percent less than the volume of the salt cake in the melt charge.

Research Organization:
Atlantic Richfield Hanford Co., Richland, Wash. (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
E(45-1)-2130
OSTI ID:
7352152
Report Number(s):
ARH-ST-135
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English