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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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.
Rebecca Pachuau, B. Lalremruata, N. Otuka, L. R. Hlondo, L. R. M. Punte, H. H. Thanga
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 187 | Number 1 | July 2017 | Pages 70-80
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2017.1291053
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Recently, we measured the 70Zn(n,γ)71Znm activation cross sections using the 7Li(p,n)7Be neutron source for 2.0 MeV < Ep < 3.7 MeV. Since the time-of-flight and multiple foil activation techniques cannot be applied due to the continuous beam structure and weak neutron flux at the facility, we have to rely on calculated neutron energy spectra for data reduction procedure. There are existing Monte Carlo–based codes such as Protons In Neutrons Out (PINO) and SimLiT for calculation of 7Li(p,n)7Be neutron source spectra at these energies. However, these two codes predicted different neutron spectra at these energy regions. We therefore decided to study the thick and thin target 7Li(p,n)7Be neutron spectra from the reaction threshold to the three-body breakup threshold by deterministic calculation. The predicted neutron spectra near threshold were validated by experimental neutron spectra. Our neutron spectra were compared with those predicted by PINO and SimLiT. Our neutron spectra at Ep = 2.8 and 3.5 MeV agree perfectly with those predicted by SimLiT but not with those predicted by PINO.
