Washing and caustic leaching of Hanford tank sludges: Results of FY 1995 studies

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Abstract

During the past few years, the primary mission at the US Department of Energy`s Hanford Site has changed from producing plutonium to environmental restoration. Large volumes of high-level radioactive wastes (HLW), generated during past Pu production and other operations, are stored in underground tanks on site. The current plan for remediating the Hanford tank farms consists of waste retrieval, pretreatment, treatment (immobilization), and disposal. The HLW will be immobilized in a borosilicate glass matrix; the resulting glass canisters will then be disposed of in a geologic repository. Because of the expected high cost of HLW immobilization and disposal, pretreatment processes will be implemented to reduce the volume of borosilicate glass produced in processing the tank wastes. This document describes sludge washing and caustic leaching tests conducted in FY 1995 at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) at the request of Westinghouse Hanford Company. These tests were performed using sludges from seven Hanford waste tanks -- B-111, BX-107, C-103, S-104, SY-103, T-104, and T-111. The primary and secondary types of waste stored in each of these tanks are given in Table 1. 1. The data collected in this effort will be used to support the March 1998 Tri-Party Agreement decision on the extent of pretreatment to be performed on the Hanford tank sludges (Ecology, EPA, and DOE 1994).

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