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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.
T. Brown
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 389-392
Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963265
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper describes the current status of the FIRE (Fusion Ignition Research Experiment) configuration and the integration of the major subsystem components. FIRE has a major radius of 2 m, a field on axis of 10T, a plasma current of 6.4 MA. It is capable of 18-second pulses when operated with DT and 26 s when operated with DD. The general arrangement consists of sixteen wedged TF (toroidal field) coils that surround a free standing central solenoid, a double wall vacuum vessel and internal plasma facing components that are segmented for maintenance through horizontal ports. Large rings located outside the TF coils are used to obtain a load balance between wedging of the intercoil case structure and wedging at the upper/lower inboard corners of the TF coil winding. The magnets are liquid nitrogen cooled and the entire device is surrounded by a thermal enclosure. The double wall vacuum vessel integrates cooling and shielding in a shape that maximizes shielding of ex-vessel components. Within the vacuum vessel, plasma-facing components frame the plasma. First wall tiles are attached directly to inboard and outboard vacuum vessel walls. The divertor is designed for a high triangularity, double-null plasma with a short inner null point-to-wall distance and near vertical outer divertor flux line. The FIRE configuration has been developed to meet the physics objectives and subsystem requirements in an arrangement that allows remote maintenance of in-vessel components and hands-on maintenance of components outside the TF boundary.