Composition and Flow Behavior of F-Canyon Tank 804 Sludge following Manganese Addition and pH Adjustment

The Site Deactivation and Decommissioning (SDD) Organization is evaluating options to disposition the 800 underground tanks (including removal of the sludge heels from these tanks). To support this effort, SDD requested assistance from Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) personnel to examine the composition and flow characteristics of the Tank 804 sludge slurry after diluting it 10:1 with water, adding manganese nitrate to produce a slurry containing 5.5 wt % manganese (40:1 ratio of Mn:Pu), and adding sufficient 8 M caustic to raise the pH to 7, 10, and 14. Researchers prepared slurries containing one part Tank 804 sludge and 10 parts water. The water contained 5.5 wt % manganese (which SDD will add to poison the plutonium in Tank 804) and was pH adjusted to 3, 7, 10, or 14. They hand mixed (i.e., shook) these slurries and allowed them to sit overnight. With the pH 3, 7, and 10 slurries, much of the sludge remained stuck to the container wall. With the pH 14 slurry, most of the sludge appeared to be suspended in the slurry. They collected samples from the top and bottom of each container, which were analyzed for plutonium, manganese, and organic constituents. Following sampling, they placed the remaining material into a viscometer and measured the relationship between applied shear stress and shear rate. The pH 14 slurry was placed in a spiral ''race track'' apparatus and allowed to gravity drain

Elastic Properties of 4–6 nm-thick Glassy Carbon Thin Films

Glassy carbon is a disordered, nanoporous form of carbon with superior thermal and chemical stability in extreme environments. Freestanding glassy carbon specimens with 4–6 nm thickness and 0.5 nm average pore size were synthesized and fabricated from polyfurfuryl alcohol precursors. Elastic properties of the specimens were measured in situ inside a scanning electron microscope using a custom-built micro-electro-mechanical system. The Young’s modulus, fracture stress and strain values were measured to be about 62 GPa, 870 MPa and 1.3%, respectively; showing strong size effects compared to a modulus value of 30 GPa at the bulk scale. This size effect is explained on the basis of the increased significance of surface elastic properties at the nanometer length-scale

SIMULANT DEVELOPMENT FOR SAVANNAH RIVER SITE HIGH LEVEL WASTE

The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) at the Savannah River Site vitrifies High Level Waste (HLW) for repository internment. The process consists of three major steps: waste pretreatment, vitrification, and canister decontamination/sealing. The HLW consists of insoluble metal hydroxides (primarily iron, aluminum, magnesium, manganese, and uranium) and soluble sodium salts (carbonate, hydroxide, nitrite, nitrate, and sulfate). The HLW is processed in large batches through DWPF; DWPF has recently completed processing Sludge Batch 3 (SB3) and is currently processing Sludge Batch 4 (SB4). The composition of metal species in SB4 is shown in Table 1 as a function of the ratio of a metal to iron. Simulants remove radioactive species and renormalize the remaining species. Supernate composition is shown in Table 2

Evaluation of Foaming and Antifoam Effectiveness During the WTP Oxidative Leaching Process

The River Protection Project-Waste Treatment Plant (RPP-WTP) requested Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to conduct small-scale foaming and antifoam testing using a Hanford waste simulant subjected to air sparging during oxidative leaching. The foaminess of Hanford tank waste solutions was previously demonstrated by SRNL during WTP evaporator foaming studies and in small scale air sparger studies. The commercial antifoam, Dow Corning Q2-3183A was recommended to mitigate the foam in the evaporators and in vessel equipped with pulse jet mixers and air spargers. Currently, WTP is planning to use air spargers in the HLW Lag Storage Vessels (HLP-VSL-00027A/B), the Ultrafiltration Vessels (UFP-VSL-00002A&B), and the HLW Feed Blend Vessel (HLPVSL-00028) to assist the performance of the Pulse Jet Mixers (PJM). The previous air sparger antifoam studies conducted by SRNL researchers did not evaluate the hydrogen generation rate expected from antifoam additions or the effectiveness of the antifoam during caustic leaching or oxidative leaching. The fate of the various antifoam components and breakdown products in the WTP process under prototypic process conditions (temperature & radiation) was also not investigated. The effectiveness of the antifoam during caustic leaching, expected hydrogen generation rate associated with antifoam addition, and the fate of various antifoam components are being conducted under separate SRNL research tasks

2009 Pilot Scale Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming Testing Using the Thor (Thermal Organic Reduction) Process: Analytical Results for Tank 48h Organic Destruction - 10408

The Savannah River Site (SRS) must empty the contents of Tank 48H, a 1.3 million gallon Type IIIA HLW storage tank, to return this tank to service. The tank contains organic compounds, mainly potassium tetraphenylborate that cannot be processed downstream until the organic components are destroyed. The THOR{reg_sign} Treatment Technologies (TTT) Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming (FBSR) technology, herein after referred to as steam reforming, has been demonstrated to be a viable process to remove greater than 99.9% of the organics from Tank 48H during various bench scale and pilot scale tests. These demonstrations were supported by Savannah River Remediation (SRR) and the Department of Energy (DOE) has concurred with the SRR recommendation to proceed with the deployment of the FBSR technology to treat the contents of Tank 48H. The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) developed and proved the concept with non-radioactive simulants for SRR beginning in 2003. By 2008, several pilot scale campaigns had been completed and extensive crucible testing and bench scale testing were performed in the SRNL Shielded Cells using Tank 48H radioactive sample. SRNL developed a Tank 48H non-radioactive simulant complete with organic compounds, salt, and metals characteristic of those measured in a sample of the radioactive contents of Tank 48H. FBSR Pilot Scaled Testing with the Tank 48H simulant has demonstrated the ability to remove greater than 98% of the nitrites and greater than 99.5% of the nitrates from the Tank 48H simulant, and to form a solid product that is primarily alkali carbonate. The alkali carbonate is soluble and, thus, amenable to pumping as a liquid to downstream facilities for processing. The FBSR technology was demonstrated in October of 2006 in the Engineering Scale Test Demonstration (ESTD) pilot scale steam reformer at the Hazen Research Inc. (HRI) facility in Golden, CO. Additional ESTD tests were completed in 2008 and in 2009 that further demonstrated the TTT steam reforming process ability to destroy organics in the Tank 48 simulant and produce a soluble carbonate waste form. The ESTD was operated at varying feed rates and Denitration and Mineralization Reformer (DMR) temperatures, and at a constant Carbon Reduction Reformer (CRR) temperature of 950 C. The process produced a dissolvable carbonate product suitable for processing downstream. ESTD testing was performed in 2009 at the Hazen facility to demonstrate the long term operability of an integrated FBSR processing system with carbonate product and carbonate slurry handling capability. The final testing demonstrated the integrated TTT FBSR capability to process the Tank 48 simulant from a slurry feed into a greater than 99.9% organic free and primarily dissolved carbonate FBSR product slurry. This paper will discuss the SRNL analytical results of samples analyzed from the 2008 and 2009 THOR{reg_sign} steam reforming ESTD performed with Tank 48H simulant at HRI in Golden, Colorado. The final analytical results will be compared to prior analytical results from samples in terms of organic, nitrite, and nitrate destruction

RADIOACTIVE DEMONSTRATION OF FINAL MINERALIZED WASTE FORMS FOR HANFORD WASTE TREATMENT PLANT SECONDARY WASTE BY FLUIDIZED BED STEAM REFORMING USING THE BENCH SCALE REFORMER PLATFORM

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of River Protection (ORP) is responsible for the retrieval, treatment, immobilization, and disposal of Hanford's tank waste. Currently there are approximately 56 million gallons of highly radioactive mixed wastes awaiting treatment. A key aspect of the River Protection Project (RPP) cleanup mission is to construct and operate the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The WTP will separate the tank waste into high-level and low-activity waste (LAW) fractions, both of which will subsequently be vitrified. The projected throughput capacity of the WTP LAW Vitrification Facility is insufficient to complete the RPP mission in the time frame required by the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order, also known as the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA), i.e. December 31, 2047. Therefore, Supplemental Treatment is required both to meet the TPA treatment requirements as well as to more cost effectively complete the tank waste treatment mission. In addition, the WTP LAW vitrification facility off-gas condensate known as WTP Secondary Waste (WTP-SW) will be generated and enriched in volatile components such as {sup 137}Cs, {sup 129}I, {sup 99}Tc, Cl, F, and SO{sub 4} that volatilize at the vitrification temperature of 1150 C in the absence of a continuous cold cap (that could minimize volatilization). The current waste disposal path for the WTP-SW is to process it through the Effluent Treatment Facility (ETF). Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming (FBSR) is being considered for immobilization of the ETF concentrate that would be generated by processing the WTP-SW. The focus of this current report is the WTP-SW. FBSR offers a moderate temperature (700-750 C) continuous method by which WTP-SW wastes can be processed irrespective of whether they contain organics, nitrates, sulfates/sulfides, chlorides, fluorides, volatile radionuclides or other aqueous components. The FBSR technology can process these wastes into a crystalline ceramic (mineral) waste form. The mineral waste form that is produced by co-processing waste with kaolin clay in an FBSR process has been shown to be as durable as LAW glass. Monolithing of the granular FBSR product is being investigated to prevent dispersion during transport or burial/storage, but is not necessary for performance. A Benchscale Steam Reformer (BSR) was designed and constructed at the SRNL to treat actual radioactive wastes to confirm the findings of the non-radioactive FBSR pilot scale tests and to qualify the waste form for applications at Hanford. BSR testing with WTP SW waste surrogates and associated analytical analyses and tests of granular products (GP) and monoliths began in the Fall of 2009, and then was continued from the Fall of 2010 through the Spring of 2011. Radioactive testing commenced in 2010 with a demonstration of Hanford's WTP-SW where Savannah River Site (SRS) High Level Waste (HLW) secondary waste from the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) was shimmed with a mixture of {sup 125/129}I and {sup 99}Tc to chemically resemble WTP-SW. Prior to these radioactive feed tests, non-radioactive simulants were also processed. Ninety six grams of radioactive granular product were made for testing and comparison to the non-radioactive pilot scale tests. The same mineral phases were found in the radioactive and non-radioactive testing

Radioactive Demonstration Of Mineralized Waste Forms Made From Hanford Low Activity Waste (Tank SX-105, Tank AN-103, And AZ-101/102) By Fluidized Bed Steam Reformation (FBSR)

Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming (FBSR) is a robust technology for the immobilization of a wide variety of radioactive wastes. Applications have been tested at the pilot scale for the high sodium, sulfate, halide, organic and nitrate wastes at the Hanford site, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and the Savannah River Site (SRS). Due to the moderate processing temperatures, halides, sulfates, and technetium are retained in mineral phases of the feldspathoid family (nepheline, sodalite, nosean, carnegieite, etc). The feldspathoid minerals bind the contaminants such as Tc-99 in cage (sodalite, nosean) or ring (nepheline) structures to surrounding aluminosilicate tetrahedra in the feldspathoid structures. The granular FBSR mineral waste form that is produced has a comparable durability to LAW glass based on the short term PCT testing in this study, the INL studies, SPFT and PUF testing from previous studies as given in the columns in Table 1-3 that represent the various durability tests. Monolithing of the granular product was shown to be feasible in a separate study. Macro-encapsulating the granular product provides a decrease in leaching compared to the FBSR granular product when the geopolymer is correctly formulated

Bacteremia After Prophylaxis II

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141639/1/jper0371.pd

The Broad-lined Type Ic SN 2003jd

The results of a world-wide coordinated observational campaign on the broad-lined Type Ic SN 2003jd are presented. In total, 74 photometric data points and 26 spectra were collected using 11 different telescopes. SN 2003jd is one of the most luminous SN Ic ever observed. A comparison with other Type Ic supernovae (SNe Ic) confirms that SN 2003jd represents an intermediate case between broad-line events (2002ap, 2006aj), and highly energetic SNe (1997ef, 1998bw, 2003dh, 2003lw), with an ejected mass of M_{ej} = 3.0 +/- 1 Mo and a kinetic energy of E_{k}(tot) = 7_{-2}^{+3} 10^{51} erg. SN 2003jd is similar to SN 1998bw in terms of overall luminosity, but it is closer to SNe 2006aj and 2002ap in terms of light-curve shape and spectral evolution. The comparison with other SNe Ic, suggests that the V-band light curves of SNe Ic can be partially homogenized by introducing a time stretch factor. Finally, due to the similarity of SN 2003jd to the SN 2006aj/XRF 060218 event, we discuss the possible connection of SN 2003jd with a GRB.Comment: 19 pages, 19 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

Radioactive Demonstration Of Mineralized Waste Forms Made From Hanford Low Activity Waste (Tank Farm Blend) By Fluidized Bed Steam Reformation (FBSR)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is responsible for the retrieval, treatment, immobilization, and disposal of Hanford’s tank waste. A key aspect of the River Protection Project (RPP) cleanup mission is to construct and operate the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The WTP will separate the tank waste into high-level and low-activity waste (LAW) fractions, both of which will subsequently be vitrified. The projected throughput capacity of the WTP LAW Vitrification Facility is insufficient to complete the RPP mission in the time frame required by the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order, also known as the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA), i.e. December 31, 2047. Supplemental Treatment is likely to be required both to meet the TPA treatment requirements as well as to more cost effectively complete the tank waste treatment mission. The Supplemental Treatment chosen will immobilize that portion of the retrieved LAW that is not sent to the WTP’s LAW Vitrification facility into a solidified waste form. The solidified waste will then be disposed on the Hanford site in the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF). Fluidized Bed Steam Reforming (FBSR) offers a moderate temperature (700-750°C) continuous method by which LAW can be processed irrespective of whether the waste contain organics, nitrates, sulfates/sulfides, chlorides, fluorides, volatile radionuclides or other aqueous components. The FBSR technology can process these wastes into a crystalline ceramic (mineral) waste form. The mineral waste form that is produced by co-processing waste with kaolin clay in an FBSR process has been shown to be comparable to LAW glass, i.e. leaches Tc-99, Re and Na at 6 (the Hanford IDF criteria for Na) in the first few hours. The granular and monolithic waste forms also pass the EPA Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) for all Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) components at the Universal Treatment Standards (UTS). Two identical Benchscale Steam Reformers (BSR) were designed and constructed at SRNL, one to treat non-radioactive simulants and the other to treat actual radioactive wastes. The results from the non-radioactive BSR were used to determine the parameters needed to operate the radioactive BSR in order to confirm the findings of non-radioactive FBSR pilot scale and engineering scale tests and to qualify an FBSR LAW waste form for applications at Hanford. Radioactive testing commenced using SRS LAW from Tank 50 chemically trimmed to look like Hanford’s blended LAW known as the Rassat simulant as this simulant composition had been tested in the non-radioactive BSR, the non-radioactive pilot scale FBSR at the Science Applications International Corporation-Science and Technology Applications Research (SAIC-STAR) facility in Idaho Falls, ID and in the TTT Engineering Scale Technology Demonstration (ESTD) at Hazen Research Inc. (HRI) in Denver, CO. This provided a “tie back” between radioactive BSR testing and non-radioactive BSR, pilot scale, and engineering scale testing. Approximately six hundred grams of non-radioactive and radioactive BSR product were made for extensive testing and comparison to the non-radioactive pilot scale tests performed in 2004 at SAIC-STAR and the engineering scale test performed in 2008 at HRI with the Rassat simulant. The same mineral phases and off-gas species were found in the radioactive and non-radioactive testing. The granular ESTD and BSR products (radioactive and non-radioactive) were analyzed for total constituents and durability tested as a granular waste form. A subset of the granular material was stabilized in a clay based geopolymer matrix at 42% and 65% FBSR loadings and durability tested as a monolith waste form. The 65 wt% FBSR loaded monolith made with clay (radioactive) was more durable than the 67-68 wt% FBSR loaded monoliths made from fly ash (non-radioactive) based on short term PCT testing. Long term, 90 to 107 day, ASTM C1308 testing (similar to ANSI/ANS 16.1 testing) was only performed on two fly ash geopolymer monoliths at 67-68 wt% FBSR loading and three clay geopolymer monoliths at 42 wt% FBSR loading. More clay geopolymers need to be made and tested at longer times at higher FBSR loadings for comparison to the fly ash monoliths. Monoliths made with metakaolin (heat treated) clay are of a more constant composition and are very reactive as the heat treated clay is amorphous and alkali activated. The monoliths made with fly ash are subject to the inherent compositional variation found in fly ash as it is a waste product from burning coal and it contains unreactive components such as mullite. However, both the fly ash and the clay based monoliths perform well in long term ASTM C1308 testing. Extensive testing and characterization of the granular and monolith material were made including the following American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) tests: ASTM C1285 testing (Product Consistency Test) of granular and monolithic waste forms; Comparison of granular BSR radioactive to ESTD and pilot scale granular non-radioactive waste form made from the Rassat simulant Comparison of granular radioactive to granular non-radioactive waste form made from the Rassat simulant made using the SRNL BSR; Comparison of monolithic BSR radioactive waste forms to monolithic BSR and ESTD non-radioactive waste forms made of fly ash; Comparison of granular BSR radioactive waste forms to monolithic BSR non-radioactive waste forms made of fly ash; Comparison of granular BSR radioactive waste forms to monolithic BSR non-radioactive waste forms made of clay; ASTM C1308 Accelerated Leach Test for Diffusive Releases from Solidified Waste and a Computer Program to Model Diffusive, Fractional Leaching from Cylindrical Waste Forms; Comparison of BSR non-radioactive waste forms to monolithic ESTD non-radioactive waste forms made from fly ash; Testing of BSR non-radioactive monoliths made from clay for comparison to non-radioactive monoliths made from fly ash; ASTM C39 Compressive Strength of Cylindrical Concrete Specimens; Comparison of monolithic BSR radioactive waste forms to monolithic BSR and ESTD non-radioactive waste forms; EPA Manual SW-846 Method 1311, Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP); Comparison of granular BSR radioactive to ESTD and pilot scale granular non-radioactive waste form made from the Rassat simulant; Comparison of granular radioactive to granular non-radioactive waste form made from the Rassat simulant made using the SRNL BSR; Comparison of monolithic BSR radioactive waste forms to monolithic BSR non-radioactive waste forms