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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.
I. A. Alekseev, S. D. Bondarenko, O. A. Fedorchenko, T. V. Vasyanina, K. A. Konoplev, E. A. Arkhipov, V. V. Uborsky
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 3 | October 2011 | Pages 1117-1120
Concept and Facility | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST60-1117
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The experimental industrial plant for hydrogen isotope separation on the basis of the Combined Electrolysis and Catalytic Exchange (CECE) process has been operating safely and reliably for 15 years in Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI). The plant has been designed to carry out the development of CECE process. In parallel with study of hydrogen isotope separation by CECE process the facility is used for processing heavy water wastes contaminated by tritium. The plant produces reactor quality heavy water and heavy water with reduced content of tritium less than 105 Bq/kg. The plant has been modified several times since its put into operation in 1995. This paper summarizes the CECE technology development and experience gained during the upgrade of facility, replacement of failed components and operation of the plant since its commissioning in 1995.