skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: ''Foaming in Radioactive Waste Treatment and Immobilization Processes''

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/828581· OSTI ID:828581

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS) is responsible for the safe storage, processing and immobilization of the High Level (radioactive) Waste (HLW) currently stored in approximately fifty million-gallon underground storage tanks. Foam is present in many areas of the HLW processing including HLW chemical processing, HLW evaporation and HLW cesium decontamination. Foam impacts the production rates of each of these facilities. The presence of foam during chemical processing and evaporation steps leads to slower production rates in the high level waste evaporators and in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) waste pretreatment and may lead to higher capital costs or slower production in cesium decontamination. Also, excessive foam causes radioactive contamination of the condensate and equipment. Hence, the objective of this research is to study the mechanisms that produce foaming during nuclear waste treatment, to identify key parameters which aggravate foaming, and to identify effective ways to eliminate or mitigate foaming.

Research Organization:
Illinois institute of Technology, Chicago, Il (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) (US)
DOE Contract Number:
FG07-97ER14828
OSTI ID:
828581
Report Number(s):
EMSP-60143-2000; R&D Project: EMSP 60143; TRN: US0404030
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 1 Jun 2000
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English