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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.
Lukáš Vondrovic, Ilona Pospíšková, Antonín Vokál, J. Augusta, J. Slovák (SURAO)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 706-709
The Czech Republic’s radioactive waste disposal concept assumes the construction of a deep geological repository in crystalline host rocks at a depth of 500m below the earth’s surface. The current stage of the site selection and evaluation process requires that the characteristics of the geosphere be determined at a depth envisaged for the future repository. This paper addresses the current state of construction of, and preparation of the R&D program for, the new Bukov generic underground research facility which will provide invaluable support for the current siting process and the safety evaluation of the disposal concept in the Czech Republic by providing the depth calibration parameters required to supplement the data acquired from surface exploration. The intensive characterization program which was conducted during the construction phase focused on the characterization of the site from the geological, geomechanical and hydrogeological aspects. The future experimental program will focus on the following principal research areas: the geosphere and materials and techniques.
