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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.
M. S. Ladygina, I. E. Garkusha, A. K. Marchenko, V. A. Makhlai, M. J. Sadowski, E. Skladnik-Sadowska, N. N. Aksenov, V. I. Tereshin
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 1 | July 2011 | Pages 27-33
doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12401
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This report presents the results of experimental studies of powerful plasma impacts upon tungsten and carbon surfaces, which are ITER relevant Plasma Facing Materials (PFMs). The simulation experiments were carried out with a QSPA Kh-50 (Quasi-Stationary Plasma Accelerator) in Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology (Ukraine) and an RPI-IBIS (Multi-Rod Plasma Injector) facility in the Andrzej Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies (IPJ) Swierk (Poland).QSPA Kh-50 generates hydrogen plasma streams of duration of 0.25 ms and the heat loads in the range of 0.2–2.5 MJ/m2, which correspond to the Edge Localized Modes (ELM) impacts expected in ITER. The plasma stream diameter is 18 cm, averaged ion energy is about 0.4 keV, and the maximum plasma pressure achieves 3.2 bar. Due to that fact, using the QSPA Kh-50 it is possible to simulate ITER transient events. Deuterium plasma streams with power density of 10-50 W/m2 and pulse duration of 1-5 s, generated by RPI-IBIS were used for comparative studies and determination of an initial stage of evaporated impurities dynamics during plasma-surface interactions as well as features of surface damages appearing under varied plasma parameters.In order to determinate the main plasma parameters (an electron density and temperature) and to study of impurities behavior at the time of discharge the use was made of optical spectroscopy methods. The onset of a vapor shield in front of the target surface was investigated in dependence on a surface heat load for tungsten (W) and carbon (C) targets. Information about dynamics of the W- and C-ions production was obtained.Some issues of the droplet splashing at the tungsten surfaces and the formation of hot spots upon the graphite surface, which can be sources of the enhanced evaporation, are also discussed.