PROGRESS WITH K BASINS SLUDGE RETRIEVAL STABILIZATION & PACKAGING AT THE HANFORD NUCLEAR SITE
This paper shows how Fluor Hanford and BNG America have combined nuclear plant skills from the U.S. and the U.K. to devise methods to retrieve and treat the sludge that has accumulated in K Basins at the Hanford Site over many years. Retrieving the sludge is the final stage in removing fuel and sludge from the basins to allow them to be decontaminated and decommissioned, so as to remove the threat of contamination of the Columbia River. A description is given of sludge retrieval using vacuum lances and specially developed nozzles and pumps into Consolidation Containers within the basins. The special attention that had to be paid to the heat generation and potential criticality issues with the irradiated uranium-containing sludge is described. The processes developed to re-mobilize the sludge from the Consolidation Containers and pump it through flexible and transportable hose-in-hose piping to the treatment facility are explained with particular note made of dealing with the abrasive nature of the sludge. The treatment facility, housed in an existing Hanford building, is described, and the uranium-corrosion and grout packaging processes explained. The uranium corrosion process is a robust, tempered process very suitable for dealing with a range of differing sludge compositions. Optimization and simplification of the original sludge corrosion process design is described and the use of transportable and reusable equipment is indicated. The processes and techniques described in the paper are shown to have wide applicability to nuclear cleanup.
- Research Organization:
- Hanford Site (HNF), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE - Office of Environmental Management (EM)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC06-96RL13200
- OSTI ID:
- 875794
- Report Number(s):
- HNF-28790-FP Rev 0; TRN: US0600765
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM'06 CONFERENCE 02/26/2006 THRU 03/02/2006 TUCSON, AZ
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Retrieval and Management of TRU Sludge at Hanford K-Basin - 19641
DEVELOPMENT OF EQUIPMENT FOR THE RETRIEVAL & STABILIZATION & ENCAPSULATION OF RADIOACTIVE SLUDGE AT THE HANFORD SITE