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2024 ANS Annual Conference
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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.
Paul Day, Mark Cutkosky, Richard Greco, Anastasia McLaughlin
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 167 | Number 3 | March 2011 | Pages 242-247
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE10-56TN
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Irradiation of polymer-based gecko-like synthetic adhesives (GSAs) using an accelerated beam of He++ ions has been performed. This irradiation simulates large radiation doses that the GSAs may experience if deployed on a robotic platform in some radiological environments. After irradiation, the adhesive samples were tested for adhesion on a three-axis adhesion testing stage and were examined via scanning electron microscope. The GSA samples showed significant changes in surface morphology at high radiation doses. Additionally, radiation doses larger than 750 kGy resulted in a significant deterioration of the adhesive performance. Eventually, the adhesive samples lost all ability to generate frictional adhesion. Such results allow us to make quantitative statements about the applicability of GSAs for robotic applications in nuclear environments.