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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
J. D. Coburn, T. E. Gebhart, C. M. Parish, E. Unterberg, J. Canik, M. W. Barsoum, M. Bourham
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 7 | October 2019 | Pages 621-635
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1623570
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Erosion characteristics of tungsten-alternative plasma-facing materials (PFMs) were tested under high heat flux conditions in the electrothermal plasma source facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The PFMs of interest are high-purity β-3C chemical vapor deposition silicon carbide (SiC) and the MAX phases Ti3SiC2 and Ti2AlC [MAX = chemical formula Mn+1AXn, where M is an early transition metal (such as Ti or Ta), A is an A-group element (such as Si or Al), and X is carbon or nitrogen]. An erosion analysis method was developed using a combination of focused ion beam microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, carving micro-trench geometries into polished sample surfaces. Samples of SiC, Ti3SiC2, and Ti2AlC were exposed to the electrothermal plasma source alongside tungsten and monocrystalline silicon. Samples were exposed to a Lexan polycarbonate (C16H14O3) electrothermal plasma stream in a He environment, at a specified impact angle, with infrared camera diagnostics. Edge localized mode–relevant heat fluxes of 0.9 to 1 GW/m2 over 1-ms discharges were generated on the target surfaces. Tungsten samples exhibited pronounced melt-layer formation and deformation, with measured molten pits 2 to 10 μm in diameter and melt-layer depths of up to 7 μm deep. Surface erosion rates for Ti3SiC2 and Ti2AlC ranged from 80 to 775 μm/s and 85 to 470 μm/s, respectively. Both MAX phases exhibited extreme surface fracture and material ejection, with damage depths past 4 μm for Ti2AlC and 11 μm for Ti3SiC2. SiC displayed the best performance, in one case surviving 15 consecutive electrothermal plasma exposures with an average erosion rate of about 29 μm/s and no surface fracturing. SiC erosion rates ranged from 23 to 128 μm/s.