Hanford complex

Only 4-5 % of the utilized nuclear fuel worldwide is reprocessed. Commercial, nonmilitary, reprocessing of nuclear fuel takes place in France, Japan, India and the United Kingdom. Other reprocessing plants defined as defense-related are in operation and producing waste but without discharges. For example in the USA, at the Savannah River Plant and the Hanford complex, about 83 000 m and 190 000 m, respectively, of high-level liquid waste was in storage in 1985. 

The Bush Administration (1989-1993) had a similar free marketplace philosophy as Reagan, hut faced the daunting task of having to start directing billions toward cleaning up after forty years of neglect at the contaminated weapons complex, particularly the federal facilities at Savannah River South Carolina, Hanford Washington, and Rocky Flats Colorado. The cleanup plan was fourfold characterize and prioritize all waste cleanups at departmental sites, con-... 

Other multiphase ceramics. Numerous multiphase ceramic formulations for conditioning of various wastes have been designed (Harker 1988). These so-called tailored ceramics were developed for immobilization of complex defence wastes at the Savannah River Plant and Rockwell Hanford Operation (Harker 1988). Tailored ceramics include ACT and REE hosts (fluorite-structure solid solutions, zirconolite. 

Fermi s atomic pile was just a prototype. For manufacturing bomb plutonium, a plant was built at the tiny village of Hanford in Washington State. And so, drip by drip, the US war machine squeezed out its uranium-235 and plutonium, while the problem of how to build an atomic bomb was tackled by the physicists, chemists, and engineers at the Los Alamos complex in New Mexico. 

The 12 waste components were selected for study based on their quantities in the Hanford HLW solutions and their abilities to complex, or influence the complexation of metallic radioelements. The range of chemical component concentrations studied, given in Table I, was broadly representative of concentrations found in HLW. 

Strontium sorption behavior was consistent with the strontium solubility behavior described earlier. Both HEDTA and EDTA significantly decreased strontium sorption through formation of poorly sorbed anionic complexes (4). Close inspection of the test data suggested that increased sodium ion concentration might have led to decreased strontium sorption. The competition of strontium with sodium for sorption sites had been observed previously for Hanford sediments (13). 

Rockwell Hanford Operations has supported a research effort to develop sensors that can be incorporated into autoclaves to continuously monitor the Eh and pH conditions existing during hydrothermal interaction tests. These sensors must be mechanically stable at temperatures up to 300°C and pressures up to 300 bars and must be chemically stable in the presence of complex hydrothermal solutions. The sensors must also be easily incorporated into the standard autoclaves currently in use, and must be operable in a radiation environment. 

The stabihzation of a range of contaminants, including Cr , in Ceramicrete was demonstrated by Wagh et al. [60] with two liquid waste streams that simulated radioactive supernatant and sludge from Hanford tanks within the DOE complex. These waste streams... 

Ceramicrete stabilization of Tc, partitioned from high-level tank wastes, was demonstrated by Singh et al. [11]. The waste stream was a product of a complexation-elution process that separates Tc from HLW, such as supernatant from salt waste tanks at Hanford and Savannah River. A typical waste solution generated during the complexation-elution process contains 1 M NaOH, 1 M ethylenediamine, and 0.005 M Sn +. 

The alternative to the direct-maintenance philosophy is the canyon using remotely removable equipment as used in the early U.S. plants at Hanford and SRP. This has proved successful but requires more space and is of a more complex design. 

Figure 5. Coupled hydrology and geochemistry of the adsorption and displacement of Sr and SrEDTA through the Hanford flood deposits, (a) Observed displacement of nonreactive tracer Bf, and reactive SrEDTA through repacked sediments, (b) Enlarged view of (a) to show the co-elution of nonreactive tracer Br and EDTA" formerly complexed with (c) Observed...

This paper describes the approach taken to reduce the number of chemical systems to a subset, the Na-Ca-Sr-OH-COs-NOs-EDTA-HEDTA-H2O system, which incorporates all of the strongest conq>lexation/ion-inteiactions for Sr in the more complex actual Hanford tank wastes. A compilation of the previously developed thermodynamic data is presented along with previously uiqiublished experimental data for certain chemical systems used to define the key systems needing detailed research. It is hoped fliat combining all of these results into one manuscript will bodi facilitate the use of the data and provide additional essential detail on the choice of the chemical systems and the validity of the overall model to the conq>lex tank wastes. 

A production reactor is a complex of systems and equipment designed to sustain, control, cool and replenish a nuclear chain reaction over relatively long operating periods for the purpose of converting uranium to plutonium, Hanford production reactors are graphite moderated, horizontal tube, water-cooled reactors. 

No damaging earthquake has ever been received in the lomedlate vicinity of the Hanford Plant However, earthquakes causing moderate to severe damage have occurred in the Pacific Northwest Moreover, earthquake damage could result in a severe accident if suitable resistance were not provided Therefore, prudence required that the critical systems in the N Reactor complex be built to withstand severe earthquake shocks ... 

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