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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.
Z. Insepov, A. Hassanein, T. T. Bazhirov, G. É. Norman, V. V. Stegailov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 4 | November 2007 | Pages 885-889
Technical Paper | First Wall, Blanket, and Shield | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1605
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Thermodynamics and kinetics of nano-scale bubble formation in liquid metals such as Li and Pb were studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations at pressures typical for magnetic and inertial fusion. Two different approaches to bubble formation were developed. In one method, radial densities, pressures, surface tensions, and work functions of the cavities in supercooled liquid lithium were calculated and compared with the surface tension experimental data. The critical radius of a stable cavity in liquid lithium was found for the first time. In the second method, the cavities were created in the highly streched region of the liquid phase diagram; and then the stability boundary and the cavitation rates were calculated in liquid lead. The pressure dependences of cavitation frequencies were obtained over the temperature range 700-270°K in liquid Pb. The results of MD calculations for cavitation rate were compared with estimates of classical nucleation theory.