Adiabatic Heat of Hydration Calorimetric Measurements for Reference Saltstone Waste [electronic resource]
The production of nuclear materials for weapons, medical, and space applications from the mid-1950's through the late-1980's at the Savannah River Site (SRS) generated approximately 35 million gallons of liquid high-level radioactive waste, which is currently being processed into vitrified...
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Online Access |
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| 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,
2006.
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| Summary: | The production of nuclear materials for weapons, medical, and space applications from the mid-1950's through the late-1980's at the Savannah River Site (SRS) generated approximately 35 million gallons of liquid high-level radioactive waste, which is currently being processed into vitrified glass for long-term storage. Upstream of the vitrification process, the waste is separated into three components: high activity insoluble sludge, high activity insoluble salt, and very low activity soluble salts. The soluble salt represents 90% of the 35 million gallons of overall waste and is processed at the SRS Saltstone Facility, where it mixed with cement, blast furnace slag, and flyash, creating a grout-like mixture. The resulting grout is pumped into aboveground storage vaults, where it hydrates into concrete monoliths, called saltstone, thus immobilizing the low-level radioactive salt waste. As the saltstone hydrates, it generates heat that slowly diffuses out of the poured material. To ensure acceptable grout properties for disposal and immobilization of the salt waste, the grout temperature must not exceed 95 C during hydration. Adiabatic calorimetric measurements of the heat generated for a representative sample of saltstone were made to determine the time-dependent heat source term. These measurements subsequently were utilized as input to a numerical conjugate heat transfer model to determine the expected peak temperatures for the saltstone vaults. |
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| Item Description: | Published through the Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information. 01/12/2006. "wsrc-tr-2006-00030" Bollinger, James. |