Advances in the Glass Formulations for the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant
The Department of Energy-Office of River Protection (DOE-ORP) is constructing the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) to treat radioactive waste currently stored in underground tanks at the Hanford site in Washington. The WTP that is being designed and constructed by a team led by Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI) will separate the tank waste into High Level Waste (HLW) and Low Activity Waste (LAW) fractions with the majority of the mass (~90%) directed to LAW and most of the activity (>95%) directed to HLW. The pretreatment process, envisioned in the baseline, involves the dissolution of aluminum-bearing solids so as to allow the aluminum salts to be processed through the cesium ion exchange and report to the LAW Facility. There is an oxidative leaching process to affect a similar outcome for chromium-bearing wastes. Both of these unit operations were advanced to accommodate shortcomings in glass formulation for HLW inventories. A by-product of this are a series of technical challenges placed upon materials selected for the processing vessels. The advances in glass formulation play a role in revisiting the flow sheet for the WTP and hence, the unit operations that were being imposed by minimal waste loading requirements set forth in the contract for the design and construction of the plant. Another significant consideration to the most recent revision of the glass models are the impacts on resolution of technical questions associated with current efforts for design completion.
- Research Organization:
- Hanford Site (HNF), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
- Contributing Organization:
- Department of Energy - Office of River Protection, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC27-08RV14800
- OSTI ID:
- 1167468
- Report Number(s):
- ORP-58129-FP Rev 0
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM2015 Waste Management Symposia 03/15/2015 - 03/19/2015 Phoenix AZ
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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