High-Level Waste Tank Cleaning and Field Characterization at the West Valley Demonstration Project [electronic resource]
The West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) is nearing completion of radioactive high-level waste (HLW) retrieval from its storage tanks and subsequent vitrification of the HLW into borosilicate glass. Currently, 99.5% of the sludge radioactivity has been recovered from the storage tanks and vitrif...
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Online Access |
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| Corporate Authors: | , |
| Format: | Government Document Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Washington, D.C : Oak Ridge, Tenn. :
United States. Dept. of Energy ; distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy,
2002.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | The West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) is nearing completion of radioactive high-level waste (HLW) retrieval from its storage tanks and subsequent vitrification of the HLW into borosilicate glass. Currently, 99.5% of the sludge radioactivity has been recovered from the storage tanks and vitrified. Waste recovery of cesium-137 (Cs-137) adsorbed on a zeolite media during waste pretreatment has resulted in 97% of this radioactivity being vitrified. Approximately 84% of the original 1.1 x 1018 becquerels (30 million curies) of radioactivity was efficiently vitrified from July 1996 to June 1998 during Phase I processing. The recovery of the last 16% of the waste has been challenging due to a number of factors, primarily the complex internal structural support system within the main 2.8 million liter (750,000 gallon) HLW tank designated 8D-2. Recovery of this last waste has become exponentially more challenging as less and less HLW is available to mobilize and transfer to the Vitrification Facility. This paper describes the progressively more complex techniques being utilized to remove the final small percentage of radioactivity from the HLW tanks, and the multiple characterization technologies deployed to determine the quantity of Cs-137, strontium-90 (Sr-90), and alpha-transuranic (alpha-TRU) radioactivity remaining in the tanks. |
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| Item Description: | Published through the Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information. 02/26/2002. Waste Management 2002 Symposium, Tucson, AZ (US), 02/24/2002--02/28/2002. Drake, J. L.; McMahon, C. L.; Meess, D. C. |
| Physical Description: | 14 pages : digital, PDF file. |