Hanford Waste Physical and Rheological Properties: Data and Gaps

The Hanford Site in Washington State manages 177 underground storage tanks containing approximately 250,000 m3 of waste generated during past defense reprocessing and waste management operations. These tanks contain a mixture of sludge, saltcake and supernatant liquids. The insoluble sludge fraction of the waste consists of metal oxides and hydroxides and contains the bulk of many radionuclides such as the transuranic components and 90Sr. The saltcake, generated by extensive evaporation of aqueous solutions, consists primarily of dried sodium salts. The supernates consist of concentrated (5-15 M) aqueous solutions of sodium and potassium salts. The 177 storage tanks include 149 single-shell tanks (SSTs) and 28 double -hell tanks (DSTs). Ultimately the wastes need to be retrieved from the tanks for treatment and disposal. The SSTs contain minimal amounts of liquid wastes, and the Tank Operations Contractor is continuing a program of moving solid wastes from SSTs to interim storage in the DSTs. The Hanford DST system provides the staging location for waste feed delivery to the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of River Protection’s (ORP) Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The WTP is being designed and constructed to pretreat and then vitrify a large portion of the wastes in Hanford’s 177 underground waste storage tanks

Estimate of Hanford Waste Rheology and Settling Behavior

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of River Protection’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) will process and treat radioactive waste that is stored in tanks at the Hanford Site. Piping, pumps, and mixing vessels have been selected to transport, store, and mix the high-level waste slurries in the WTP. This report addresses the analyses performed by the Rheology Working Group (RWG) and Risk Assessment Working Group composed of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Bechtel National Inc. (BNI), CH2M HILL, DOE Office of River Protection (ORP) and Yasuo Onishi Consulting, LLC staff on data obtained from documented Hanford waste analyses to determine a best-estimate of the rheology of the Hanford tank wastes and their settling behavior. The actual testing activities were performed and reported separately in referenced documentation. Because of this, many of the required topics below do not apply and are so noted

Colloidal Agglomerates in Tank Sludge: Impact on Waste Processing

Insoluble colloidal sludges in hazardous waste streams such as tank wastes can pose serious problems for waste processing, interfering with retrieval, transport, separation, and solidification processes. Properties of sediment layers and sludge suspensions such as slurry viscosities, sedimentation rates, and final sediment densities can vary by orders of magnitude depending on the particle types present, the degree to which the particles agglomerate, and processing parameters such as shear rates, pH, salt content, and temperature. The objectives of this research are to: understand the factors controlling the nature and extent of colloidal agglomeration under expected waste processing conditions; determine how agglomeration phenomena influence physical properties relevant to waste processing including rheology, sedimentation, and filtration; develop strategies for optimizing processing conditions via control of agglomeration phenomena

Retrieval and pipeline transfer assessment of hanford tank 241 an 105 waste

This study assesses five steps for Tank 241-AN-105 waste retrieval and subsequent pipeline transfer: 1. Remove supernatant liquid waste from AN-105 and transfer it through a pipeline with inline dilution with water (1st liquid waste transfer). 2. Add water (as a diluent) to Tank AN-105. 3. Mix the saltcake waste and water with mixer pumps to dissolve soluble solids. 4. Let undissolved solids settle to the tank bottom. 5. Remove the resulting supernatant liquid waste from Tank AN-105 (2nd liquid waste transfer). To assess these five steps for waste retrieval and pipeline transfer, AN-105 waste rheology was measured and solids identified with bright field image, select area diffraction, and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. By combining available in situ and laboratory data, an AN-105 specific viscosity model was developed that can change from several centiPoise of viscosity to tens of millions of centiPoise as a function of strain rate and solid concentration. This viscosity mo del was implemented into the AN-105 computer model to simulate pump jet mixing. The report also evaluates AN-105 slurry waste transfer to AP-102 and AP-104 through a 3-inch (0.07-m) pipeline. Document type: Repor

Colloidal Agglomerates in Tank Sludge: Impact on Waste Processing

Disposal of millions of gallons of existing radioactive wastes in underground storage tanks is a major remediation activity for the United States Department of Energy. These wastes include a substantial volume of insoluble sludges consisting of submicron colloidal particles. Processing these sludges under the proposed processing conditions presents unique challenges in retrieval, transport, separation, and solidification of these waste streams. Depending on processing conditions, these colloidal particles can form agglomerated networks having high viscosities that could clog transfer lines or produce high volumes of low-density sediments that interfere with solid-liquid separations. Under different conditions, these particles can be dispersed to form very fine suspended particles that do not settle. Given the wide range of waste chemistries present at Department of Energy sites, it is impractical to measure the properties of all treatment procedures. The underlying principle s of colloid chemistry and physics were studied to provide data that would make it possible to predict and eventually control the physical properties of sludge suspensions and sediment layers in tank wastes and other waste processing streams

Deposition Velocities of Non-Newtonian Slurries in Pipelines: Complex Simulant Testing

One of the concerns expressed by the External Flowsheet Review Team (EFRT) is about the potential for pipe plugging at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). Per the review’s executive summary, “Piping that transports slurries will plug unless it is properly designed to minimize this risk. This design approach has not been followed consistently, which will lead to frequent shutdowns due to line plugging.” To evaluate the potential for plugging, deposition-velocity tests were performed on several physical simulants to determine whether the design approach is conservative. Deposition velocity is defined as the velocity below which particles begin to deposit to form a moving bed of particles on the bottom of a straight horizontal pipe during slurry-transport operations. The deposition velocity depends on the system geometry and the physical properties of the particles and fluid. An experimental program was implemented to test the stability-map concepts presented in WTP-RPT-175 Rev. 01. Two types of simulant were tested. The first type of simulant was similar to the glass-bead simulants discussed in WTP-RPT-175 Rev. 0 ; it consists of glass beads with a nominal particle size of 150 µm in a kaolin/water slurry. The initial simulant was prepared at a target yield stress of approximately 30 Pa. The yield stress was then reduced, stepwise, via dilution or rheological modifiers, ultimately to a level of <1 Pa. At each yield-stress step, deposition-velocity testing was performed. Testing over this range of yield-stress bounds the expected rheological operating window of the WTP and allows the results to be compared to stability-map predictions for this system. The second simulant was a precipitated hydroxide that simulates HLW pretreated sludge from Hanford waste tank AZ-101. Testing was performed in a manner similar to that for the first simulant over a wide range of yield stresses; however, an additional test of net-positive suction-head required (NPSHR) was performed at each yield stress condition. Unlike the previous simulant, the sizes and densities of the particles that can deposit in the piping are a result of the simulant precipitation process; there is expected to be a complex mixture of particles of various sizes and densities that make it difficult to predict a stability map. The objective of the testing is to observe whether behavior consistent with the stability-map concept occurs in complex simulants with mixtures of different sizes and densities

Deposition Velocities of Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Slurries in Pipelines

The WTP pipe plugging issue, as stated by the External Flowsheet Review Team (EFRT) Executive Summary, is as follows: “Piping that transports slurries will plug unless it is properly designed to minimize this risk. This design approach has not been followed consistently, which will lead to frequent shutdowns due to line plugging.” A strategy was employed to perform critical-velocity tests on several physical simulants. Critical velocity is defined as the point where a stationary bed of particles deposits on the bottom of a straight horizontal pipe during slurry transport operations. Results from the critical velocity testing provide an indication of slurry stability as a function of fluid rheological properties and transport conditions. The experimental results are compared to the WTP design guide on slurry transport velocity in an effort to confirm minimum waste velocity and flushing velocity requirements as established by calculations and critical line velocity correlations in the design guide. The major findings of this testing is discussed below. Experimental results indicate that the use of the Oroskar and Turian (1980) correlation in the design guide is conservative—Slurry viscosity has a greater affect on particles with a large surface area to mass ratio. The increased viscous forces on these particles result in a decrease in predicted critical velocities from this traditional industry derived equations that focus on particles large than 100 m in size. Since the Hanford slurry particles generally have large surface area to mass ratios, the reliance on such equations in the Hall (2006) design guide is conservative. Additionally, the use of the 95% percentile particle size as an input to this equation is conservative. However, test results indicate that the use of an average particle density as an input to the equation is not conservative. Particle density has a large influence on the overall result returned by the correlation. Lastly, the viscosity correlation used in the WTP design guide has been shown to be inaccurate for Hanford waste feed materials. The use of the Thomas (1979) correlation in the design guide is not conservative—In cases where 100% of the particles are smaller than 74 m or particles are considered to be homogeneous due to yield stress forces suspending the particles the homogeneous fraction of the slurry can be set to 100%. In such cases, the predicted critical velocity based on the conservative Oroskar and Turian (1980) correlation is reduced to zero and the design guide returns a value from the Thomas (1979) correlation. The measured data in this report show that the Thomas (1979) correlation predictions often fall below that measured experimental values. A non-Newtonian deposition velocity design guide should be developed for the WTP— Since the WTP design guide is limited to Newtonian fluids and the WTP expects to process large quantities of such materials, the existing design guide should be modified address such systems. A central experimental finding of this testing is that the flow velocity required to reach turbulent flow increases with slurry rheological properties due to viscous forces dampening the formation of turbulent eddies. The flow becomes dominated by viscous forces rather than turbulent eddies. Since the turbulent eddies necessary for particle transport are not present, the particles will settle when crossing this boundary called the transitional deposition boundary. This deposition mechanism should be expected and designed for in the WTP

Hanford Waste Physical and Rheological Properties: Data and Gaps

The Hanford Site in Washington State manages 177 underground storage tanks containing approximately 250,000 m3 of waste generated during past defense reprocessing and waste management operations. These tanks contain a mixture of sludge, saltcake and supernatant liquids. The insoluble sludge fraction of the waste consists of metal oxides and hydroxides and contains the bulk of many radionuclides such as the transuranic components and 90Sr. The saltcake, generated by extensive evaporation of aqueous solutions, consists primarily of dried sodium salts. The supernates consist of concentrated (5-15 M) aqueous solutions of sodium and potassium salts. The 177 storage tanks include 149 single-shell tanks (SSTs) and 28 double -hell tanks (DSTs). Ultimately the wastes need to be retrieved from the tanks for treatment and disposal. The SSTs contain minimal amounts of liquid wastes, and the Tank Operations Contractor is continuing a program of moving solid wastes from SSTs to interim storage in the DSTs. The Hanford DST system provides the staging location for waste feed delivery to the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of River Protection’s (ORP) Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The WTP is being designed and constructed to pretreat and then vitrify a large portion of the wastes in Hanford’s 177 underground waste storage tanks