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DNFSB spots possible bottleneck in Hanford’s waste vitrification
Workers change out spent 27,000-pound TSCR filter columns and place them on a nearby storage pad during a planned outage in 2023. (Photo: DOE)
While the Department of Energy recently celebrated the beginning of hot commissioning of the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), which has begun immobilizing the site’s radioactive tank waste in glass through vitrification, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has reported a possible bottleneck in waste processing. According to the DNFSB, unless current systems run efficiently, the issue could result in the interruption of operations at the WTP’s Low-Activity Waste Facility, where waste vitrification takes place.
During operations, the LAW Facility will process an average of 5,300 gallons of tank waste per day, according to Bechtel, the contractor leading design, construction, and commissioning of the WTP. That waste is piped to the facility after being treated by Hanford’s Tanks Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) system, which filters undissolved solid material and removes cesium from liquid waste.
According to a November 7 activity report by the DNFSB, the TSCR system may not be able to produce waste feed fast enough to keep up with the LAW Facility’s vitrification rate.
A.G. Heics, W.T. Shmayda
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | October 1995 | Pages 1509-1514
Tritium Waste Management and Discharge Control | Proceedings of the Fifth Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology In Fission, Fusion, and Isotopic Applications Belgirate, Italy May 28-June 3, 1995 | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30626
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An upgraded version of a metal hydride based clean-up systema for tritium gloveboxes has been recently designed. An earlier version of a prototypical, recirculating system has been under evaluation in tritium service at OHT for nearly 2 years. A metal getter alloy, Zr2Fe, is used to remove tritium and trace impurities from inert and nitrogen glovebox cover gas. The second generation SEC system features several notable improvements over its predecessor in areas of gas conductance, process instrumentation for tritium and moisture detection, and operator interface. A second bed has been added to enhance the removal of tritium and impurities. The system is controlled by computer programmed to automatically maintain the glovebox pressure, temperature and the impurity level of the glovebox cover gas, and to respond effectively to upset conditions by corrective action and to alarm the off-normal condition. The lifetime of the metal alloy getter is affected by the presence of impurities, notably moisture, which dictates the need to ensure system leak tightness. For example, the tritium concentration at the bed outlet will rise by approximately one order of magnitude as a result of introducing a continuous moisture load of 5 ppmv for 6 months while maintaining a flow rate of 2 L/s. The second generation system will be commissioned with tritium during 1995. a Metal hydride based clean-up systems utilize a metal getter. A metal hydride is a binary metallic compound or mixture produced when hydrogen is brought into contact with a metal.