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Defense waste processing facility : the vitrification of high-level nuclear waste

Author
Brumley, W. J.
Published
United States : [publisher not identified], 1986
Springfield, Va.: National Technical Information Service, [approximately 1986]
Physical Description
microfiche : negative ; 11 x 15 cm

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Summary
The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) will be the United States' first production scale facility and the worlds' largest plant for the vitrification of high-level nuclear waste. The EDWPF, which is under construction at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Plant (SRP) will immobilize the highly radioactive fraction f over 33 million gallons of high-level nuclear waste. The facility is approximately 30% complete and will begin operation in 1990. Through technical and engineering innovation, the estimated cost of the facility was reduced from an original forecast of 2.3B to 910M. This estimate was refined in 1984 to 870M and has remained constant since. The Savannah River Plant's high-level wastes (HLW) are stored in underground tanks as salts, primarily sodium nitrate, and sludges, primarily metallic oxides and hydroxides. The sludges are pretreated in the waste tank farm prior to transfer to the DWPF. The salt fraction of the waste is decontaminated in the waste tank farm. This decontamination process results in a low-level waste stream which will be disposed of on the SRP site in a cement and flyash matrix. The HLW stream resulting from the decontamination process is a mixture of cesium and poteassium tetraphenyl borate salts. This stream will be processed in the DWPF to remove the organic component, combined with HLW sludges and glass frit before feeding to the DWPF melter. The DWPF will use many unique and innovative processes and items of equipment. The process is centered around a ceramic lined, slurry fed, joule-heated glass melter. The molten glass is poured into stainless steel canisters and a temporary plus inserted. After cooling, the canister is decontaminated by ''sand blasting'' with a mixture of air, water and glass frit. An upset resistance weld provides a permanent closure. The canisters will be stored on the SRP site until a repository is available.
Report Numbers
DE86013497; DOE/SR-2002; CONF-860418-11
Other Subject(s)
Collection
NTIS collection.
Note
OSTI Identifier 5542362
Research organization: USDOE Savannah River Operations Office, Aiken, SC.
View MARC record | catkey: 47367263