The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has millions of gallons of radioactive liquid and sludge wastes stored in underground tanks. These wastes must be retrieved, transferred to treatment facilities, and processed for disposal. Before removal from the storage tanks, the sludge and liquid wastes will typically be combined to create a mixture of suspended solids, generally referred to as a slurry; the slurry is then pumped from the tank to the treatment facilities by pipelines. Since the wastes are radioactive, it is critically important that the slurries are transported safely and successfully. The consequences of pipeline plugging are unacceptable from …
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Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
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Tennessee
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has millions of gallons of radioactive liquid and sludge wastes stored in underground tanks. These wastes must be retrieved, transferred to treatment facilities, and processed for disposal. Before removal from the storage tanks, the sludge and liquid wastes will typically be combined to create a mixture of suspended solids, generally referred to as a slurry; the slurry is then pumped from the tank to the treatment facilities by pipelines. Since the wastes are radioactive, it is critically important that the slurries are transported safely and successfully. The consequences of pipeline plugging are unacceptable from the perspectives of schedule, cost, and safety. The baseline method of ensuring that the transport properties of the slurries are correct is to sample the slurry in the tank and analyze the sample in the laboratory. This method has some problems. First, there is a delay between the time that the sample is taken and the time that the analytical results are reported. For some types of analysis, this delay could be from 24 to 48 hours. Second, although the tank is being mixed to keep tile solids in suspension during this period, there is no way to determine whether the contents of the tank are homogenous unless multiple samples are collected at various depths and locations. Therefore, an on-line system that monitors slurry transport properties in real time is needed to evaluate the slurry prior to and during transfer.
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Hylton, T. D.; Bayne, C. K.; Anderson, M. S. & Van Essen, D. C.Comparative testing of slurry monitors,
article,
December 31, 1997;
Tennessee.
(https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc697531/:
accessed June 1, 2024),
University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu;
crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.
