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

Characterization of high-level nuclear waste at the Savannah River Site

Conference ·
OSTI ID:758309
The Savannah River Site (SRS) currently stores over 125 million liters of high-level nuclear waste (HLW). Approximately 20 million liters of the HLW consists of water-insoluble solids referred to as sludge. The remainder consists of a mixture of crystallized salts and concentrated supernatant liquid produced from the evaporation of alkaline aqueous solutions. Retrieval, pretreatment and disposal operations and the closure of emptied storage tanks at the SRS require characterization of the HLW. This paper will present requirements, experiences and results obtained from the sampling and analysis of (1) sludges prepared for the first two batches of feed vitrified in the Defense Waste Processing Facility, (2) residual sludge heels in two HLW tanks prior to closure of the tanks, (3) saltcake for the determination of fissile content prior to dissolution and retrieval and (4) supernatant liquid wastes processed through HLW evaporators at the SRS.
Research Organization:
Savannah River Site (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
US Department of Energy (US)
DOE Contract Number:
AC09-96SR18500
OSTI ID:
758309
Report Number(s):
WSRC-MS-99-00750/Rev.1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English