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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.
S. H. Baxamusa, S. D. Bhandarkar, J. L. Reynolds, B. Maranville, J. Horner, D. C. Mason, C. L. Heinbockel, N. A. Antipa, A. D. Conder
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 2 | March-April 2013 | Pages 169-176
Technical Paper | Selected papers from 20th Target Fabrication Meeting, May 20-24, 2012, Santa Fe, NM, Guest Editor: Robert C. Cook | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-TFM20-27
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Because isolated contaminants on an inertial confinement fusion (ICF) ablator capsule can lead to undesirable instabilities during implosion, it is critical to remove particles from the surface of plastic capsules prior to target assembly. Current National Ignition Facility (NIF) specifications require that the capsule surface contain no particles larger than 30 m3 . We have developed a solvent-based cleaning process in which a combination of wetting and hydrodynamic forces is used to dislodge, entrain, and remove particles from the surface of plastic NIF ICF ablators. The process was conceptualized by considering the adhesive force acting between particles and a surface, the hydrodynamic force acting on particles near a surface, and the effect of solvent on these forces. We also performed experiments that showed that, in addition to utilizing the appropriate solvent and hydrodynamic force, the dwell time and surface coverage of the impinging solvent stream govern particle removal efficiency. The results from this combined approach allowed us to develop the engineering and design parameters for a prototype automated cleaning station for NIF capsules. This station can remove particles at efficiencies high enough to meet ignition cleanliness requirements.