Summary Report of Laboratory Testing to Establish the Effectiveness of Proposed Treatment Methods for Unremediated and Remediated Nitrate Salt Waste Streams

Anast, Kurt Roy¹  Funk, David John¹ 

[1] Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

关键词: ALPHA-BEARING WASTES;    WIPP;    ZEOLITES;    NITRATES;    REMEDIAL ACTION;    SOLUTIONS;    LIQUIDS;    RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING;    SOLIDS;    TESTING;    WATER;    CEMENTING;    EVALUATION;    OXIDIZERS;    S;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1253508
RP-ID  :  LA-UR--16-22658
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1253508
Others  :  TRN: US1601384

学科分类：核能源与工程

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

The inadvertent creation of transuranic waste carrying hazardous waste codes D001 and D002 requires the treatment of the material to eliminate the hazardous characteristics and allow its eventual shipment and disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). This report documents the effectiveness of two treatment methods proposed to stabilize both the unremediated and remediated nitrate salt waste streams (UNS and RNS, respectively). The two technologies include the addition of zeolite (with and without the addition of water as a processing aid) and cementation. Surrogates were developed to evaluate both the solid and liquid fractions expected from parent waste containers, and both the solid and liquid fractions were tested. Both technologies are shown to be effective at eliminating the characteristic of ignitability (D001), and the addition of zeolite was determined to be effective at eliminating corrosivity (D002), with the preferred option1 of zeolite addition currently planned for implementation at the Waste Characterization, Reduction, and Repackaging Facility. During the course of this work, we established the need to evaluate and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed remedy for debris material, if required. The evaluation determined that Wypalls absorbed with saturated nitrate salt solutions exhibit the ignitability characteristic (all other expected debris is not classified as ignitable). Follow-on studies will be developed to demonstrate the effectiveness of stabilization for ignitable Wypall debris. Finally, liquid surrogates containing saturated nitrate salts did not exhibit the characteristic of ignitability in their pure form (those neutralized with Kolorsafe and mixed with sWheat did exhibit D001). As a result, additional nitrate salt solutions (those exhibiting the oxidizer characteristic) will be tested to demonstrate the effectiveness of the remedy.