Phase chemistry and radionuclide retention of high level radioactive waste tank sludges
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has millions of gallons of high level nuclear waste stored in underground tanks at Hanford, Washington and Savannah River, South Carolina. These tanks will eventually be emptied and decommissioned. This will leave a residue of sludge adhering to the interior tank surfaces that may contaminate groundwaters with radionuclides and RCRA metals. Experimentation on such sludges is both dangerous and prohibitively expensive so there is a great advantage to developing artificial sludges. The US DOE Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) has funded a program to investigate the feasibility of developing such materials. The following text reports on the success of this program, and suggests that much of the radioisotope inventory left in a tank will not move out into the surrounding environment. Ultimately, such studies may play a significant role in developing safe and cost effective tank closure strategies.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 756118
- Report Number(s):
- SAND2000-1268C; TRN: US0003652
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management '00, Tucson, AZ (US), 02/27/2000--03/02/2000; Other Information: PBD: 19 May 2000
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Phase chemistry and radionuclide retention from simulated tank sludges
STATUS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF IN-TANK/AT-TANK SEPARATIONS TECHNOLOGIES FOR FOR HIGH-LEVEL WASTE PROCESSING FOR THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY