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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.
Milo D. Nordyke
Nuclear Technology | Volume 11 | Number 3 | July 1971 | Pages 303-314
Technical Paper | Nuclear Explosion Engineering / Nuclear Explosive | doi.org/10.13182/NT71-A30863
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An analysis has been made of the use of multiple nuclear explosives in a single emplacement hole for the stimulation of the production of natural gas from a low permeability gas reservoir. Both simultaneous and sequential firing have been considered. Although the physical effects of simultaneous or sequential firing are difficult to quantitatively predict, it is shown that for an area where the gas deposit is thick (>500 ft) and the maximum yield is limited by seismic considerations, the use of sequential firing is significantly more advantageous from an economic viewpoint. An economic analysis of a specific gas formation was made, assuming the use of sequential explosions for the commercial development of an entire gas field. Assuming a wellhead gas price of 30¢ per 1000 ft3, the internal rate of return on the required investment varied from 13 to 27%, depending on the properties of the reservoir. Before these projections can be realized, a large number of technical and operational problems must be solved.