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Latest News
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.
A. Rahier, R. Cornelissen, A. Bruggeman, W. Goossens, L. Baetsl
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 2 | September 1985 | Pages 2035-2041
Fusion Reactor | Proceedings of the Second National Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion and Isotopic Applications (Dayton, Ohio, April 30 to May 2, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A24584
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Within the framework of the European fusion technology programme, SCK/CEN has started the development of a 100 ml per day electrolyser for decomposing the highly tritiated water that will be formed when tritium is extracted from the breeder or when the plasma exhaust is purified. Safety and reliability of this electrolytic system will have to be guaranteed for at least 104 working hours. Three different cell configurations are being studied one of which is most promising because of its low tritiated water inventory (∼ 12 ml), its low working temperature (< 10 °C) and other advantages such as avoiding any recirculation of radioactive streams.
