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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.
Maria-Konstantina Laina, M. Hadid Subki
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 178-185
Fission | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13417
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
There is a growing interest in the development and deployment plan of Small and Medium Sized Reactors (SMRs) which can be seen through the numerous concepts that are under design certification and the several units that are under construction, the expanding of potential markets in developing countries, and the increasing demands from the Member States on the supports and role of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The paper summarizes the status of SMRs designs that are under development globally with the aim to give a broad perspective. It presents generic technical issues and prospect of SMRs, the advantages, challenges and parameters that potential markets take into consideration with regard to the introduction of the first nuclear power plant. Some of the issues to be addressed are economics, licensability, operational performance, waste management, safety and security, proliferation resistance and financing scheme. In the post-Fukushima era, the incorporation of the preliminary lessons learned from the accident into the SMR designs is a priority. In the end, the IAEA program on the common issues and technology of SMRs are highlighted with the purpose to facilitate countries with interest in SMRs.