La Hague Continuous Improvement Program: Enhancement of the Vitrification Throughput
- COGEMA, AREVA Group, 2 rue Paul Dautier, BP4, 78141 Velizy-Villacoublay Cedex (France)
- COGEMA, AREVA Group, 50344 Beaumont La Hague Cedex (France)
- CEA Marcoule, BP 171, 30207 Bagnols sur Ceze (France)
- SGN, AREVA Group, 1 rue des Herons, 78182 St Quentin Yvelines Cedex (France)
The vitrification of high-level liquid waste produced from nuclear fuel reprocessing has been carried out industrially for over 25 years by AREVA/COGEMA, with two main objectives: containment of the long lived fission products and reduction of the final volume of waste. At the 'La Hague' plant, in the 'R7' and 'T7' facilities, vitrified waste is obtained by first evaporating and calcining the nitric acid feed solution-containing fission products in calciners. The product-named calcinate- is then fed together with glass frit into induction-heated metallic melters to produce the so-called R7/T7 glass, well known for its excellent containment properties. Both facilities are equipped with three processing lines. In the near future the increase of the fuel burn-up will influence the amount of fission product solutions to be processed at R7/T7. As a consequence, in order to prepare these changes, it is necessary to feed the calciner at higher flow-rates. Consistent and medium-term R and D programs led by CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission, the AREVA/COGEMA's R and D and R and T provider), AREVA/COGEMA (Industrial Operator) and AREVA/SGN (AREVA/COGEMA's Engineering), and associated to the industrial feed back of AREVA/COGEMA operations, have allowed continuous improvement of the process since 1998: - The efficiency and limitation of the equipment have been studied and solutions for technological improvements have been proposed whenever necessary, - The increase of the feeding flow-rate has been implemented on the improved CEA test rig (so called PEV, Evolutional Prototype of Vitrification) and adapted by AREVA/SGN for the La Hague plant using their modeling studies; the results obtained during this test confirmed the technological and industrial feasibility of the improvements achieved, - After all necessary improved equipments have been implemented in R7/T7 facilities, and a specific campaign has been performed on the R7 facility by AREVA/COGEMA. The flow-rate to the calciner was increased from 76 l/hr to 90 l/hr in three steps. Results of each step were followed by a team of experts from CEA, AREVA/COGEMA and AREVA/SGN analyzing the impact on the vitrification facility. The results obtained at the end of this testing campaign were a success: the target feeding flow-rate was reached, improving the line productivity without consequences in equipment availability and off gas treatment performances. This paper presents the results obtained for each step of this technological improvement and illustrates the La Hague continuous improvement program performed in order to enhance the vitrification throughput. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 13023, Tucson, AZ, 85732-3023 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21208608
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-09-WM-06102; TRN: US09V0919079395
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management 2006 Symposium - WM'06 - Global Accomplishments in Environmental and Radioactive Waste Management: Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation of Waste Management Professionals, Tucson, AZ (United States), 26 Feb - 2 Mar 2006; Other Information: Country of input: France; 2 refs
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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