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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.
Takao Kawano, Naohiro Tsuboi, Hirotsugu Tsujii, Yamato Asakura, Tatsuhiko Uda
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 405-408
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Tritium Measurement, Monitoring, and Accountancy | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A954
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A previously developed analyzer for detecting extremely small concentrations of hydrogen in air was evaluated by using it to distinguish hydrogen isotopes. The analyzer utilizes the functions of a gas chromatograph and an atomic absorption spectrophotometer and is based on the reduction reaction of mercuric oxide with hydrogen. Three test samples were used: gas mixtures containing both protium and deuterium with almost equal concentrations of about 5, 20, or 50 cm3/1000 m3 diluted in nitrogen. Each measurement was repeated more than 30 times, and chromatograms were obtained for each test sample. Examination of the chromatograms showed that the retention times for the protium and deuterium could be clearly distinguished. The retention times were virtually constant and indistinguishable, independent of the concentration and repetition time. The peak areas for the protium and deuterium were also stable, independent of the repetition time. Moreover, there was a clear linear relationship between the peak areas and concentrations for both elements. These results show that the analyzer can distinguish the two hydrogen isotopes and estimate concentrations of each as small as about 5 cm3/1000 m3. They also show that it may be possible to use the analyzer to monitor tritium concentrations.