This Applied Technology Plan describes the process development, verification testing, equipment adaptation, and waste form qualification technical issues and plans for resolution to support the design, permitting, and operation of the Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant. The scope of this Plan includes work to be performed by the research and development contractor, Pacific Northwest Laboratory, other organizations within Westinghouse Hanford Company, universities and companies with glass technology expertise, and other US Department of Energy sites. All work described in this Plan is funded by the Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant Project and the relationship of this Plan to other waste management documents and issues is provided for background information. Work to performed under this Plan is divided into major areas that establish a reference process, develop an acceptable glass composition envelope, and demonstrate feed processing and glass production for the range of Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant feeds. Included in this work is the evaluation and verification testing of equipment and technology obtained from the Defense Waste Processing Facility, the West Valley Demonstration Project, foreign countries, and the Hanford Site. Development and verification of product and process models and other data needed for waste form qualification documentation are also included in this Plan. 21 refs., 4 figs., 33 tabs.
AMEC Earth & Environmental, Inc. and RWE NUKEM Corporation have teamed to develop and apply a waste pre-treatment and bulk vitrification process for low activity waste (LAW) from Hanford Single Shell Tanks (SSTs). The pretreatment and bulk vitrification process utilizes technologies that have been successfully deployed to remediate both radioactive and chemically hazardous wastes at nuclear power plants, DOE sites, and commercial waste sites in the US and abroad. The process represents an integrated systems approach. The proposed AMEC/NUKEM process follow the extraction and initial segregation activities applied to the tank wastes carried out by others. The first stage of the process will utilize NUKEM's concentrate dryer (CD) system to concentrate the liquid waste stream. The concentrate will then be mixed with soil or glass formers and loaded into refractory-lined steel containers for bulk vitrification treatment using AMEC's In-Container Vitrification (ICV) process. Following the vitrification step, a lid will be placed on the container of cooled, solidified vitrified waste, and the container transported to the disposal site. The container serves as the melter vessel, the transport container and the disposal container. AMEC and NUKEM participated in the Mission Acceleration Initiative Workshop held in Richland, Washington in April 2000 [1]. An objective of the workshop was to identify selected technologies that could be combined into viable treatment options for treatment of the LAW fraction from selected Hanford waste tanks. AMEC's ICV process combined with NUKEM's CD system and other remote operating capabilities were presented as an integrated solution. The Team's proposed process received some of the highest ratings from the Workshop's review panel. The proposed approach compliments the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) by reducing the amount of waste that the WTP would have to process. When combined with the capabilities of the WTP, the proposed approach will accelerate the tank waste remediation program plan and facilitate meeting the regulatory requirements for the remediation of the Hanford tank wastes. Consequently, the DOE Office of River Protection and CH2MHill Hanford Group identified bulk vitrification as one of the technologies to be investigated in FY03 through a demonstration program [2]. In October 2002, CH2MHill issued a request for proposal for the process development testing, engineering and data package for a non-radioactive (cold) pilot bulk vitrification process, and pre-conceptual engineering of a production bulk vitrification system. With AMEC in the lead, AMEC and NUKEM responded with a proposal. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) will support the proposed project as a key subcontractor by providing equipment, facilities, and personnel to support small-scale testing, including the testing on samples of actual tank wastes. This paper will provide an overview of the pre-treatment and bulk vitrification process, summarize the technical benefits the approach offers, and describe the demonstration program that has been developed for the project.
The Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant Project has been established to convert the high-level radioactive waste associated with nuclear defense production at the Hanford Site into a waste form suitable for disposal in a deep geologic repository. The Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant will mix processed radioactive waste with borosilicate material, then heat the mixture to its melting point (vitrification) to forin a glass-like substance that traps the radionuclides in the glass matrix upon cooling. The Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant Quality Assurance Program has been established to support the mission of the Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant. This Quality Assurance Program Description has been written to document the Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant Quality Assurance Program.
The purpose of this Process Development Plan is to summarize the objectives and plans for the technology development activities for an alternative path for disposition of the recycle stream that will be generated in the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant Low Activity Waste (LAW) vitrification facility (LAW Recycle). This plan covers the first phase of the development activities. The baseline plan for disposition of this stream is to recycle it to the WTP Pretreatment Facility, where it will be concentrated by evaporation and returned to the LAW vitrification facility. Because this stream contains components that are volatile at melter temperatures and are also problematic for the glass waste form, they accumulate in the Recycle stream, exacerbating their impact on the number of LAW glass containers. Approximately 32% of the sodium in Supplemental LAW comes from glass formers used to make the extra glass to dilute the halides to acceptable concentrations in the LAW glass, and reducing the halides in the Recycle is a key component of this work. Additionally, under possible scenarios where the LAW vitrification facility commences operation prior to the WTP Pretreatment facility, this stream does not have a proven disposition path, and resolving this gap becomes vitally important. This task seeks to examine the impact of potential future disposition of this stream in the Hanford tank farms, and to develop a process that will remove radionuclides from this stream and allow its diversion to another disposition path, greatly decreasing the LAW vitrification mission duration and quantity of glass waste. The origin of this LAW Recycle stream will be from the Submerged Bed Scrubber (SBS) and the Wet Electrostatic Precipitator (WESP) from the LAW melter off-gas system. The stream is expected to be a dilute salt solution with near neutral pH, and will likely contain some insoluble solids from melter carryover or precipitates of scrubbed components (e.g. carbonates). The soluble components are mostly sodium and ammonium salts of nitrate, chloride, and fluoride. This stream has not been generated yet, and will not be available until the WTP begins operation, causing uncertainty in its composition, particularly the radionuclide content. This plan will provide an estimate of the likely composition and the basis for it, assess likely treatment technologies, identify potential disposition paths, establish target treatment limits, and recommend the testing needed to show feasibility. Two primary disposition options are proposed for investigation, one is concentration for storage in the tank farms, and the other is treatment prior to disposition in the Effluent Treatment Facility. One of the radionuclides that is volatile and expected to be in high concentration in this LAW Recycle stream is Technetium-99 (99Tc), a long-lived radionuclide with a half-life of 210,000 years. Technetium will not be removed from the aqueous waste in the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), and will primarily end up immobilized in the LAW glass, which will be disposed in the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF). Because 99Tc has a very long half-life and is highly mobile, it is the largest dose contributor to the Performance Assessment (PA) of the IDF. Other radionuclides that are also expected to be in appreciable concentration in the LAW Recycle are 129I, 9°Sr, 137Cs, and 241Am. The concentrations of these radionuclides in this stream will be much lower than in the LAW, but they will still be higher than limits for some of the other disposition pathways currently available. Although the baseline process will recycle this stream to the Pretreatment Facility, if the LAW facility begins operation first, this stream will not have a disposition path internal to WTP. One potential solution is to return the stream to the tank farms where it can be evaporated in the 242-A evaporator, or perhaps deploy an auxiliary evaporator to concentrate it prior to return ...
