Continuosly Stirred Tank Reactor Parameters That Affect Sludge Batch 6 Simulant Properties

Newell, J. ; Lambert, D. ; Stone, M. ; Fernandez, A.

Savannah River Site (S.C.)

关键词: 36 Materials Science;    Radioactive Wastes;    Wastes;    Tanks;    12 Management Of Radioactive Wastes, And Non-Radioactive Wastes From Nuclear Facilities;   

DOI  :  10.2172/983396
RP-ID  :  SRNL-STI-2009-00603
RP-ID  :  DE-AC09-08SR22470
RP-ID  :  983396

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

The High Level Radioactive Waste (HLW) Sludge in Savannah River Site (SRS) waste tanks was produced over a period of over 60 years by neutralizing the acidic waste produced in the F and H Separations Canyons with sodium hydroxide. The HLW slurries have been stored at free hydroxide concentrations above 1 M to minimize the corrosion of the carbon steel waste tanks. Sodium nitrite is periodically added as a corrosion inhibitor. The resulting waste has been subjected to supernate evaporation to minimize the volume of the stored waste. In addition, some of the waste tanks experienced high temperatures so some of the waste has been at elevated temperatures. Because the waste is radioactive, the waste is transforming through the decay of shorter lived radioactive species and the radiation damage that the decay releases. The goal of the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) simulant development program is to develop a method to produce a sludge simulant that matches both the chemical and physical characteristics of the HLW without the time, temperature profile, chemical or radiation exposure of that of the real waste. Several different approaches have been taken historically toward preparing simulated waste slurries. All of the approaches used in the past dozen years involve some precipitation of the species using similar chemistry to that which formed the radioactive waste solids in the tank farm. All of the approaches add certain chemical species as commercially available insoluble solid compounds. The number of species introduced in this manner, however, has varied widely. All of the simulant preparation approaches make the simulated aqueous phase by adding the appropriate ratios of various sodium salts. The simulant preparation sequence generally starts with an acidic pH and ends up with a caustic pH (typically in the 10-12 range). The current method for making sludge simulant involves the use of a temperature controlled continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR). Precipitated MnO{sub 2} is combined with metal nitrates and fed into the CSTR. The metals are precipitated by a caustic NaOH stream. The rates at which these streams are added allows for pH adjustment of the mixture. A graphical representation of this process is given in Figure 1. In using the CSTR method for developing simulant, there are various parameters that can be adjusted in order to effectuate a physical change in the resulting simulant: pH, temperature, mixing speed, and flow rate. How will changing these parameters affect the physical properties of the sludge simulant? The ability to determine which parameter affects a particular property could allow one to develop a simulant that would better match the physical characteristics of HLW sludge.