Uranium and plutonium production at the Hanford Site produced large quantities of radioactive by-products and contaminated process chemicals, which are stored in underground tanks awaiting treatment and disposal. Having been made strongly alkaline and then subjected to successive water evaporation campaigns to increase storage capacity, the wastes now exist in the physical forms of salt cakes, metal oxide sludges, and partially saturated aqueous brine solutions. The tanks that contain organic process chemicals mixed with nitrate/nitrite salt wastes may be at risk for fuel- nitrate combustion accidents. The purpose of the Waste Aging Task is to elucidate how chemical and radiological …
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Pacific Northwest National Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
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Richland, Washington
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Uranium and plutonium production at the Hanford Site produced large quantities of radioactive by-products and contaminated process chemicals, which are stored in underground tanks awaiting treatment and disposal. Having been made strongly alkaline and then subjected to successive water evaporation campaigns to increase storage capacity, the wastes now exist in the physical forms of salt cakes, metal oxide sludges, and partially saturated aqueous brine solutions. The tanks that contain organic process chemicals mixed with nitrate/nitrite salt wastes may be at risk for fuel- nitrate combustion accidents. The purpose of the Waste Aging Task is to elucidate how chemical and radiological processes will have aged or degraded the organic compounds stored in the tanks. Ultimately, the task seeks to develop quantitative measures of how aging changes the energetic properties of the wastes. This information will directly support efforts to evaluate the hazard as well as to develop potential control and mitigation strategies.
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Camaioni, D. M.; Samuels, W. D.; Linehan, J. C.; Clauss, S. A.; Sharma, A. K.; Wahl, K. L. et al.Organic tanks safety program FY96 waste aging studies,
report,
October 1, 1996;
Richland, Washington.
(https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc682900/:
accessed April 27, 2024),
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