Russian technology advancements for waste mixing and retrieval
Engineers at the Mining and Chemical Combine nuclear facility, located in Zheleznogorsk, Russia, have developed a pulsating mixer/sluicer to mobilize a layer of consolidated, hardened sludge at the bottom of their 12-m-diameter by 30-m-high nuclear waste tanks. This waste has resisted mobilization by conventional sluicing jets. The new pulsating mixer/sluicer draws tank liquid into a pressure vessel, then expels it at elevated pressure either through a set of submerged mixing jets or a steerable through-air jet. Four versions (or generations) of this technology have been developed. Following testing of three other Russian mobilization and transfer systems at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a first generation of the new pulsating mixer/sluicer was identified for possible waste retrieval applications in U.S. high-level waste tanks (1). A second-generation pulsating mixer/sluicer was developed and successfully deployed in Tank TH-4 at the Oak Ridge Reservation, located in Tennessee, US (2). A thud-generation pulsating mixed/sluicer with a dual nozzle design was developed and is being tested for possible use by the Hanford Site's River Protection Project to retrieve waste from Tank 241-S-102, a single-shell tank containing radioactive saltcake and sludge. In cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy Tanks Focus Area, the Mining and Chemical Combine is conducting cold (that is, nonradioactive) tests and demonstrations of the third-generation system in 2001 and 2002. This work is being conducted through the Tank Retrieval and Closure Demonstration Center, which is sponsored by the National Nuclear Safety Administration's Office of Arms Control and Nonproliferation (NN-40). A fourth-generation dual-nozzle pulsating mixer/sluicer is undergoing cold testing for use at the Mining and Chemical Combine to retrieve radioactive sludge there in 2004.
- Research Organization:
- NHC (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC27-99RL14047
- OSTI ID:
- 808560
- Report Number(s):
- CHG-9837-FP, Rev.0; TRN: US0302199
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Conference title not supplied, Conference location not supplied, Conference dates not supplied; Other Information: PBD: 21 Jan 2002
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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