Hanford waste tank bump accident analysis
This report provides a new evaluation of the Hanford tank bump accident analysis (HNF-SD-Wh4-SAR-067 2001). The purpose of the new evaluation is to consider new information and to support new recommendations for final safety controls. This evaluation considers historical data, industrial failure modes, plausible accident scenarios, and system responses. A tank bump is a postulated event in which gases, consisting mostly of water vapor, are suddenly emitted from the waste and cause tank headspace pressurization. A tank bump is distinguished from a gas release event in two respects: First, the physical mechanism for release involves vaporization of locally superheated liquid, and second, gases emitted to the head space are not flammable. For this reason, a tank bump is often called a steam bump. In this report, even though non-condensible gases may be considered in bump models, flammability and combustion of emitted gases are not. The analysis scope is safe storage of waste in its current configuration in single-shell tanks (SSTs) and double-shell tanks (DSTs). The analysis considers physical mechanisms for tank bump to formulate criteria for bump potential, application of the criteria to the tanks, and accident analysis of bump scenarios. The result of consequence analysis is the mass of waste released from tanks for specific scenarios where bumps are credible; conversion to health consequences is performed elsewhere using standard Hanford methods (Cowley et al. 2000). The analysis forms a baseline for future extension to consider waste retrieval.
- Research Organization:
- CH2M Hill Hanford Group, Inc., Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC27-99RL14047
- OSTI ID:
- 810657
- Report Number(s):
- RPP-6213, Rev.2; ISBN ECN-720330-R0; TRN: US0302850
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 21 Mar 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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