Experience and Operational Improvements, Mixer Pump Performance

Erian, Fadel F. ; Mullen, O Dennis ; Kellogg, Michael I.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (U.S.)

关键词: Mixer Pump;    Simulant Liquid;    Solid Particles;    Mobilization;    Supernatant Liquid;   

DOI  :  10.2172/15001239
RP-ID  :  PNNL-13756
RP-ID  :  AC05-76RL01830
RP-ID  :  15001239

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

Millions of gallons of radioactive waste are stored in large underground tanks at DOE sites. The waste is made up of settled solids, in sludge form, at the bottom of the tank and a layer of supernatant liquid on top of it. It is necessary to mix the solids in the sludge layer with the supernatant liquid to facilitate their removal from the storage tanks for remediation. Our goal is to improve the mobilization of the settled solids by optimizing mixing with the supernatant liquid and preserving the mobility of the solids. This report investigates whether time-phase separation between pump head oscillations affects overall sludge mobilization. If a mixing jet from one pump happens to follow temporarily the path of the lead mixing jet, it may be possible to prevent or slow down the resettling of the heavy solid particles, maintaining them in suspension. If a retrieval pump were operating at the same time, it could facilitate removal of such particles. Preliminary experiments were carried out to observe whether time-phase separation has some influence on the overall mobilization. A brief account is presented of the successful mobilization and removal of most of the radioactive waste from Tank D8-2 at the West Valley Demonstration Project using time-phase separation techniques.