A systems engineering analysis to examine the economic impact for treatment of tritiated water in the Hanford KE-Basin
Federal and state agencies have established a Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) to address some key environmental issues faced at the Hanford Site. Under the TPA, the Department of Energy is currently under a consent order to reduce the tritium concentration in the spent fuel storage basin for KE-Reactor from 3.0 {mu}Ci/L to 0.3 {mu}Ci/L in the KE spent fuel storage basin, starting in 1996. The 100KE and 100KW Area fuel storage basins (K-Basins) at Hanford were built in the early 1950s to receive and provide temporary storage for irradiated fuel from the now shutdown KE and KW production reactors. In 1977, the KE-Basin began to leak at a rate of 13.5 gpm (51 L/min.), but, decreased to 0.03 to 0.05 gpm (0. 13 to 0.19 L/min.) by 1980. In 1993, the leak increased to a rate of 0.42 gpm (1.6 L/min.). This engineering analysis examines the relative costs to reduce the tritium concentration KE-Basin water using a polyphosphazene polymer membrane under development at Pacific Northwest Laboratory. The estimated cost of using the membrane to reduce the tritium concentration is compared to three no-treatment alternatives that include: (1) disposing of the tritium-contaminated water directly to the Columbia River, (2) disposing of the contaminated water to the soil at the on-site Effluent Treatment Facility, and (3) disposing of the contaminated water by evaporation using solar evaporation ponds.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC06-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 35350
- Report Number(s):
- PNL-SA-24970; CONF-950216-81; ON: DE95008960; TRN: 95:009047
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste management `95, Tucson, AZ (United States), 26 Feb - 2 Mar 1995; Other Information: PBD: Feb 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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