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DNFSB spots possible bottleneck in Hanford’s waste vitrification
Workers change out spent 27,000-pound TSCR filter columns and place them on a nearby storage pad during a planned outage in 2023. (Photo: DOE)
While the Department of Energy recently celebrated the beginning of hot commissioning of the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), which has begun immobilizing the site’s radioactive tank waste in glass through vitrification, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has reported a possible bottleneck in waste processing. According to the DNFSB, unless current systems run efficiently, the issue could result in the interruption of operations at the WTP’s Low-Activity Waste Facility, where waste vitrification takes place.
During operations, the LAW Facility will process an average of 5,300 gallons of tank waste per day, according to Bechtel, the contractor leading design, construction, and commissioning of the WTP. That waste is piped to the facility after being treated by Hanford’s Tanks Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) system, which filters undissolved solid material and removes cesium from liquid waste.
According to a November 7 activity report by the DNFSB, the TSCR system may not be able to produce waste feed fast enough to keep up with the LAW Facility’s vitrification rate.
L. Mercadier et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 3 | October 2011 | Pages 1049-1052
Contamination and Waste | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12596
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this paper, in situ tritium measurements and control by laser techniques are presented. It is proposed to use Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) as an efficient technique to measure the tritium concentration in ablated material. However, LIBS could be limited due to material melting observed during ablation possibly leading to hydrogen losses. Laser ablation is shown to be an efficient process to recover the in vessel tritium if the dust produced during ablation is collected. This could be forbidden if ITER cannot be operated at high pressure. To overcome this difficulty and detritiate remote surfaces, laser heating could be applied since it generates gaseous compounds. However, inward diffusion could be expected leading to burry tritium in bulk material which is a counterproductive action. Finally, all these techniques must be embarked on remote handling system in order to explore and treat large surfaces. Obviously, this carrier is needed for a reliable and an efficient operation of the ITER nuclear facility.