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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.
N. S. Klimov, V. L. Podkovyrov, A. M. Zhitlukhin, A. D. Muzichenko, D. V. Kovalenko, A. B. Putrik, I. B. Kupriyanov, R. N. Giniyatulin, A. A. Gervash, V. M. Safronov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 66 | Number 1 | July-August 2014 | Pages 118-124
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-759
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The beryllium (Be) plasma-facing components (PFCs) of the ITER first wall (FW) were tested in the plasma gun QSPA-Be under pulsed plasma heat loads of 0.5-ms duration relevant to those expected in ITER during transient plasma events (edge-localized modes and disruptions). The experiments were performed for different Be grades (Russian TGP-56FW and US S65-C). The measured Be melting threshold decreases from 0.5 MJm−2 down to 0.4 MJm−2 with Be initial temperature increasing in the range of 250–500 °C. Under plasma heat loads on the exposed surface below the melting point the Be PFC erosion was mainly due to melting of the plasma-facing and lateral edges of the Be tiles. Under plasma heat loads above the melting point the Be PFC erosion was mainly due to intense melt layer movement and splashing. The Be melt layer behavior at 0.5 and 1.0 MJm−2 is similar to early investigated W melt layer behavior at higher heat loads of 1.0 and 1.5 MJm−2 correspondingly. Unlike W the Be erosion rate significantly increases with initial temperature in the range of 250–500 °C. These experimental observations are supported by calculation of temperature dynamics and melt layer thickness dynamics.