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Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
F. Bombarda, B. Coppi, F. Franza, Z. S. Hartwig, G. Ramogida, M. Zucchetti
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 95-100
Fusion | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13403
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fusion creates more neutrons per energy released than fission or spallation, therefore DT fusion facilities have the potential to become the most intense sources of neutrons for material testing. An Ignitor-like device, that is a compact, high field, high density machine could be envisaged for this purpose making full use of the intense neutron flux that it can generate, without reaching ignition. The main features of this High Field Neutron Source Facility, which would have about 50% more volume than Ignitor, are illustrated and the R&D required in order to achieve relevant dpa quantities in the tested materials are discussed, in particular the adoption of superconducting magnet coils. Radiation damage evaluations have been performed by means of the ACAB code, showing the potential of high field, neutron-rich devices for fusion material testing. Few full-power months of operation are sufficient to obtain significant radiation damage values (in terms of dpa) of large size samples (~m3). The setup of a duty cycle for the device in order to obtain such operation times is discussed. The problem of radiation damage to the insulator of the Toroidal Field Coils has been explored. Two strategies for mitigating damage to the TF coil insulators have been demonstrated, and it is likely that both will need to be implemented to ensure the survival of the insulating material for the lifetime of the tokamak.