Radioactive waste containing low concentrations of fissile isotopes is stored in underground storage tanks on the Hanford Site in Washington State. The goal of criticality safety is to ensure that this waste remains subcritical into the indefinite future without supervision. A large ratio of solids to plutonium provides an effective way of ensuring a low plutonium concentration. Since the first waste discharge, a program of audits and appraisals has ensured that operations are conducted according to limits and controls applied to them. In addition, a program of surveillance and characterization maintains watch over waste after discharge.
High-level radioactive waste from nuclear fuels processing is stored in underground waste storage tanks located in the tank farms on the Hanford Site. Waste in tank storage contains low concentrations of fissile isotopes, primarily U-235 and Pu-239. The composition and the distribution of the waste components within the storage environment is highly complex and not subject to easy investigation. An important safety concern is the preclusion of a self-sustaining neutron chain reaction, also known as a nuclear criticality. A thorough technical evaluation of processes, phenomena, and conditions is required to make sure that subcriticality will be ensured for both current and future tank operations. Subcriticality limits must be based on considerations of tank processes and take into account all chemical and geometrical phenomena that are occurring in the tanks. The important chemical and physical phenomena are those capable of influencing the mixing of fissile material and neutron absorbers such that the degree of subcriticality could be adversely impacted. This report describes a logical approach to resolving the criticality safety issues in the Hanford waste tanks. The approach uses a structured logic diagram (SLD) to identify the characterization needed to quantify risk. The scope of this section of the report is limited to those branches of logic needed to quantify the risk associated with a criticality event occurring. The process is linked to a conceptual model that depicts key modes of failure which are linked to the SLD. Data that are needed include adequate knowledge of the chemical and geometric form of the materials of interest. This information is used to determine how much energy the waste would release in the various domains of the tank, the toxicity of the region associated with a criticality event, and the probability of the initiating criticality event.
This criticality safety evaluation covers double-shell waste storage tanks (DSTs), double-contained receiver tanks (DCRTs), vault tanks, and the 242-A Evaporator located in the High Level Waste (HLW) Tank Farms on the Hanford Site. Limits and controls are specified and the basis for ensuring criticality safety is discussed. A minimum limit of 1,000 is placed upon the solids/plutonium mass ratio in incoming waste. The average solids/Pu mass ratio over all waste in tank farms is estimated to be about 74,500, about 150 times larger than required to assure subcriticality in homogeneous waste. PFP waste in Tank-102-SY has an estimated solids/Pu mass ratio of 10,000. Subcriticality is assured whenever the plutonium concentration is less than 2.6 g. The median reported plutonium concentration for 200 samples of waste solids is about 0.01 g (0.038 g/gal). A surveillance program is proposed to increase the knowledge of the waste and provide added assurance of the high degree of subcriticality.
Nuclear criticality parameters were developed as a basis for evaluating criticality safety for waste stored in the high-level waste tank farms on the Hanford Site in Washington State. The plutonium critical concentration and critical mass were calculated using a conservative waste model (CWM). The primary requirement of a CWM is that it have a lower neutron absorption than any actual waste. Graphs are provided of the critical mass as a function of plutonium concentration for spheres and for uniform slab layers in a 22.9-m-diameter tank. Minimum subcritical absorber-to-plutonium mass rates were calculated for waste components selected for their relative abundance and neutron absorption capacity. Comparison of measured absorber-to-plutonium mass ratios in their corresponding subcritical limit mass ratios provides a means of assessing whether criticality is possible for waste of the measured composition. A comparison is made between the plutonium critical concentrations in CWM solids and in a postulated real waste. This comparison shows that the actual critical parameters are likely to be significantly larger than those obtained using the CWM, thus providing confidence that the margin of safety obtained to the criticality safety evaluation is conservative.
Data and calculations from previous criticality safety evaluations and analyses were used to evaluate criticality safety for the entire Tank Farms facility to support the continued waste storage mission. This criticality safety evaluation concludes that a criticality accident at the Tank Farms facility is an incredible event due to the existing form (chemistry) and distribution (neutron absorbers) of tank waste. Limits and controls for receipt of waste from other facilities and maintenance of tank waste condition are set forth to maintain the margin subcriticality in tank waste.
The Savannah River Site (SRS) High Level Nuclear Waste will be vitrified in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) for long term storage and disposal. This is a nuclear criticality safety evaluation for the Late Wash Facility (LWF), the Salt Processing Cell (SPC) and the Chemical Processing Cell (CPC). of the DWPF. Waste salt solution is processed in the Tank Farm In-Tank Precipitation (ITP) process and is then further washed in the DWPF Late Wash Facility (LWF) before it is fed to the DWPF Salt Processing Cell. In the Salt Processing Cell the precipitate slurry is processed in the Precipitate Reactor (PR) and the resultant Precipitate Hydrolysis Aqueous (PHA) produce is combined with the sludge feed and frit in the DWPF Chemical Process Cell to produce a melter feed. The waste is finally immobilized in the Melt Cell. Material in the Tank Farm and the ITP and Extended Sludge processes have been shown to be safe against a nuclear criticality by others. The precipitate slurry feed from ITP and the first six batches of sludge feed are safe against a nuclear criticality and this evaluation demonstrates that the processes in the LWF, the SPC and the CPC do not alter the characteristics of the materials to compromise safety.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) needs to take action in the near-term, to accelerate resolution of waste tank safety issues at the Hanford Site near the City of Richland, Washington, and reduce the risks associated with operations and management of the waste tanks. The DOE has conducted nuclear waste management operations at the Hanford Site for nearly 50 years. Operations have included storage of high-level nuclear waste in 177 underground storage tanks (UST), both in single-shell tank (SST) and double-shell tank configurations. Many of the tanks, and the equipment needed to operate them, are deteriorated. Sixty-seven SSTs are presumed to have leaked a total approximately 3,800,000 liters (1 million gallons) of radioactive waste to the soil. Safety issues associated with the waste have been identified, and include (1) flammable gas generation and episodic release; (2) ferrocyanide-containing wastes; (3) a floating organic solvent layer in Tank 241-C-103; (4) nuclear criticality; (5) toxic vapors; (6) infrastructure upgrades; and (7) interim stabilization of SSTs. Initial actions have been taken in all of these areas; however, much work remains before a full understanding of the tank waste behavior is achieved. The DOE needs to accelerate the resolution of tank safety concerns to reduce the risk of an unanticipated radioactive or chemical release to the environment, while continuing to manage the wastes safely.
This plan provides a management approved procedure for inspections and assessments of sufficient depth to validate that the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) facility complies with the requirements of the Project Hanford criticality safety program, NHF-PRO-334, ''Criticality Safety General, Requirements''.
