''Foaming in Radioactive Waste Treatment and Immobilization Processes''

Wasan, Darsh T.

Illinois Institute of Technology

关键词: Evaporators;    Decontamination;    12 Management Of Radioactive Wastes, And Non-Radioactive Wastes From Nuclear Facilities;    Evaporation;    Underground Storage;   

DOI  :  10.2172/828581
RP-ID  :  EMSP-60143--2000
RP-ID  :  FG07-97ER14828
RP-ID  :  828581

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS) is responsible for the safe storage, processing and immobilization of the High Level (radioactive) Waste (HLW) currently stored in approximately fifty million-gallon underground storage tanks. Foam is present in many areas of the HLW processing including HLW chemical processing, HLW evaporation and HLW cesium decontamination. Foam impacts the production rates of each of these facilities. The presence of foam during chemical processing and evaporation steps leads to slower production rates in the high level waste evaporators and in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) waste pretreatment and may lead to higher capital costs or slower production in cesium decontamination. Also, excessive foam causes radioactive contamination of the condensate and equipment. Hence, the objective of this research is to study the mechanisms that produce foaming during nuclear waste treatment, to identify key parameters which aggravate foaming, and to identify effective ways to eliminate or mitigate foaming.