Integration and mechanics of waste collection and processes
Integration and mechanics of waste collection and processes for spacecraft life support system
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Environmental control and life support systems
Viewgraphs on Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) for Space Station Freedom are presented. Topics covered include: crew generated wastes processing and reclamation; water reclamation - pre- and post-treatment; simplified waste water processing; improved trace contaminant removal; and real time microbial analysis.
Ray, Charles D.↗
Creating and sustaining a safety conscious work environment - 15240
Organizational Culture, Safety Culture, and a Safety Conscious Work Environment (SCWE) are psychological constructs that describe behaviors of organizations, especially with respect to behaviors needed to ensure safe, highly reliable work. These attributes of culture are often singled out in surveys, root cause analyses and management expectations as the basis for being safe or as the cause of an incident. Organizations that wish to improve culture often do not have a framework to measure and act upon tasks or projects that will promote a positive safety culture (and thus a positive SCWE). Combining the work of organizational behavior pioneers with the 'blue collar' approaches to continuous improvement offers framework organizations may use to improve safety culture while devoting efforts to improving conditions that are meaningful and tangible to floor level employees. The framework consists of the use of Safety Culture and SCWE surveys and focus groups to complement each other and offer topical areas that need improvement or study in the organization. A Safety Culture Improvement Panel will then direct specific improvement projects based on these topic areas and relate these projects to causal variables that effect incremental changes in culture. By applying principles of process improvement to the improvement of culture, the framework is formed to have employees work 'day-today' issues while effectively addressing the often vague or abstract notion of improving culture. A case study of the use of these principles is given by following the SCWE Assessment conducted by the Transuranic Waste Processing Center (TWPC) and subsequent improvements derived from data found in the assessment. The attributes of a SCWE and an effective safety culture accomplish much more than just having a safe place to work. These characteristics result in a high performance, continuously improving organization. The experience of commercial nuclear power, the aviation industry, and other high performing endeavors bear this out. Achieving an effective SCWE is not easy, and sustaining it is even more difficult, but the results are surely worth the effort. The techniques discussed in this presentation are effective, available, and cost-effective; they are easily adaptable for use in other organizations to create, sustain and improve a SCWE. (authors)
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Effect of Feed Solids Content on LAW Melt Processing
The primary objective of this work was to collect data to support processing of Hanford LAW over a range of feed solids contents, extending both higher and lower than the present WTP baseline. Processing LAW at higher solids content has the potential to increase throughput and reduce the time required to process the inventory of LAW waste. Processing some LAW streams at lower than the WTP baseline solids contents may be a required condition for the direct feed approach due to the more limited pretreatment functionality and evaporation capability. A high waste loading glass formulation developed in earlier work for an LAW composition specified by ORP was used for this work. The glass composition selected for testing is ORPLA20, which is based on LAW tank AN-105; the glass has a waste loading of 31.4 wt% and an Na2O content of 24.0 wt%.
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Analysis of antifoam agent degradation products in an evaporator
A wetting agent used to control foaming in the Chemical Processing Cell at the Defense Waste Processing Facility degrades to form compounds that could volatilize to form vapor exceeding the lower flammability limit. Three identified components of concern were hexamethyl disiloxane, trimethyl silanol, and propanal. Analytical methods were developed and implemented on a real waste sample to monitor degradation products. In this work, using standards, an extraction method with dichloromethane and analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance was developed. Both methods had detection limits less than 1 mg/L for the analytes.
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Identification and prioritization of high risk deteriorating support infrastructure - 15475
Identification and prioritization for the re-capitalization of deteriorating waste processing and storage support infrastructure and information technology (IT) is essential for a safe, cost effective, and sustainable waste management program. Funding restraints have limited programs to performing only maintenance on aging infrastructure support systems whose operational costs, technological obsolescence, and reliability risks continue to grow without a disciplined and balanced re-capitalization program. Savannah River Site (SRS) comprises both Department of Energy Environmental Management and NNSA missions, and includes a lab, Savannah River National Laboratory. SRS has developed a crosscutting identification and prioritization tool and process that provides integration of all Site mission support infrastructure re-capitalization requirements and prioritizes into a single database that can be readily accessed for infrastructure investment decisions. This database, referred to as the SRS Critical Integrated Infrastructure Priority List (CIIPL) captures risk data that includes impacts toward safety, regulatory compliance, mission, and cost for inclusion in its prioritization process. Further, the CIIPL provides a status of each entered project's readiness for execution that includes funding source, reliability of current cost estimate, and an out year budget profile. The SRS CIIPL, created in 2009, was initially comprised of re-capitalization projects for the Site's common infrastructure (i.e. shared roads and utilities) that supported all Site missions and activities. As mission program funding became constrained, the value for a Site wide integrated prioritization tool became more apparent and the CIIPL grew to include all Site mission and tenant activities which included safeguards and security requirements. The SRS CIIPL has become a highly effective tool for achieving senior management situational awareness of the Site's most pressing support infrastructure and IT needs. The mission programs have used the CIIPL to prioritize and fund high risk projects within their own program budgets. This past year, the CIIPL was used as a budgeting and decision making tool to allocate funding for two common infrastructures high risk projects for the FY16 Site budget submission and has received laudatory comments from DOE headquarters review teams. The SRS CIIPL and its process can be a benefit to other waste management organizations by demonstrating a proven approach toward the integration of support infrastructure and IT re-capitalization requirements across diverse mission and tenant boundaries. The SRS CIIPL can provide senior management with an objective decision making tool that delivers a balanced evaluation of project requirements in terms of multiple risk criteria; safety, regulatory, mission, and cost impacts. (authors)
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Solid and Liquid Waste Drying Bag
Method and system for processing waste from human activities, including solids, liquids and vapors. A fluid-impermeable bag, lined with a liquid-impermeable but vapor-permeable membrane, defining an inner bag, is provided. A vacuum force is provided to extract vapors so that the waste is moved toward a selected region in the inner bag, extracted vapors, including the waste vapors and vaporized portions of the waste liquids are transported across the membrane, and most or all of the solids remain within the liner. Extracted vapors are filtered, and sanitized components thereof are isolated and optionally stored. The solids remaining within the liner are optionally dried and isolated for ultimate disposal.
Litwiller, Eric↗
A Comprehensive Solution for Managing TRU and LLW From Generation to Final Disposition - 13205
A LANL multi-disciplinary team faced the challenge of building and delivering a waste information system capable of managing radioactive, hazardous, and industrial waste from cradle to grave. The result is the Waste Compliance and Tracking System (WCATS) a flexible, adaptive system that has allowed LANL to consolidate its legacy applications into one system, and leverage the advantages of managing all waste types within a single scalable enterprise application. Key functionality required for robust waste operations, include: waste characterization, waste identification, transportation, inventory management, waste processing, and disposal. In order to maintain data quality, field operations such as waste identification, surveillance checklists, wall-to-wall inventory assessments, waste transfers, shipment pickup and receipt, and simple consolidation operations are captured by the operator or technician using mobile computers. Work flow is managed via end-user defined work paths, to ensure that unit operations are performed in the correct order. Regulatory compliance reports and algorithms are provided to support typical U.S. EPA, DOT, NRC, and DOE requirements, including the EPA hazardous waste manifest, NRC LLW manifest, DOE nuclear material at risk, RCRA TSDF inventory rules, and so forth. The WCATS application has allowed LANL to migrate and consolidate its disparate legacy applications. The design and implementation is generalized so that facility owners can customize the user interface, setup facilities and unit operations (i.e., treatment, storage, disposal, characterization, and administrative), define inventory compliance rules, and establish custom work flow requirements. (authors)
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Follow-on Report of Analysis of Approaches to Supplemental Treatment of Low–Activity Waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation (Volumes I & II)
The Hanford Site, in southeast Washington State, is preparing to disposition approximately 56,000,000 gallons (56 Mgal) of radioactive and chemically hazardous wastes currently stored in underground tanks at the site. Tank wastes will be divided into a high-activity fraction and a low-activity fraction for subsequent treatment and disposition. A waste processing and treatment facility, the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), will include the high-level waste (HLW) vitrification facility (WTP HLW Vitrification Facility) for immobilizing the high-activity fraction and a low-activity waste (LAW) vitrification facility (WTP LAW Vitrification Facility) for immobilizing the low-activity fraction. Both facilities will use vitrification technology to immobilize the Hanford tank wastes in a glass waste form.
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Follow-On Report of Analysis of Approaches to Supplemental Treatment of Low-Activity Waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation (Volumes I & II)
The Hanford Site, in southeast Washington State, is preparing to disposition approximately 56,000,000 gallons (56 Mgal) of radioactive and chemically hazardous wastes currently stored in underground tanks at the site. Tank wastes will be divided into a high-activity fraction and a low-activity fraction for subsequent treatment and disposition. A waste processing and treatment facility, the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), will include the high-level waste (HLW) vitrification facility (WTP HLW Vitrification Facility) for immobilizing the high-activity fraction and a low-activity waste (LAW) vitrification facility (WTP LAW Vitrification Facility) for immobilizing the low-activity fraction. Both facilities will use vitrification technology to immobilize the Hanford tank wastes in a glass waste form.
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Performance characterization of water recovery and water quality from chemical/organic waste products
The water reclamation subsystems currently being evaluated for the Space Shuttle Freedom are briefly reviewed with emphasis on a waste water management system capable of processing wastes containing high concentrations of organic/inorganic materials. The process combines low temperature/pressure to vaporize water with high temperature catalytic oxidation to decompose volatile organics. The reclaimed water is of potable quality and has high potential for maintenance under sterile conditions. Results from preliminary experiments and modifications in process and equipment required to control reliability and repeatability of system operation are presented.
Moses, W. M.↗
Facility Improvements and Modifications to Extend the Operational Life of the Modular Caustic-Side Solvent Extraction Process - 16082
Savannah River Remediation, LLC (SRR) is working to remove, stabilize, and dispose of approximately 36.7 million gallons (138.9 million liters) of liquid radioactive waste currently stored in 43 underground waste tanks, and ultimately close waste tanks. In 2008, as an interim salt treatment system to remove cesium from high level waste salt solutions prior to the Salt Waste Processing Facility start up, the Modular Caustic-Side Solvent Extraction Unit (MCU) initiated the removal of cesium from liquid radioactive salt waste prior to disposal. The MCU was designed and built for an expected three-year operational life and five-year design life. The first MCU cold runs began in June 2007 and hot startup was completed in April 2008. MCU remains in hot operation to this day, aiding in multiple, high-level tank closures. In an effort to continue liquid waste disposition at the Savannah River Site (SRS), equipment upgrades and operational improvements have been made to extend the life of the MCU beyond the original three years. Several pieces of fixed equipment have been converted into removable equipment which reduces the downtime associated with equipment change-outs and thereby reduces the dose to workers and processing impacts. Multiple pumps and filters have been upgraded to more robust designs. Process monitoring and controls have been upgraded to improve process performance. Redundant centrifugal contactor vibration equipment has been installed on each contactor in order to better assess the reliability, processing performance, and lifetime of the contactors. A new Solvent Hold Tank (SHT) Sampler has been installed to minimize the organic cross-contamination within the sampler, dose to workers, and sample analysis time. To increase processing availability and aid in visually obtained data, camera port has been added to the Salt Solution Feed Tank (SSFT). In order to decrease the overall background dose to the workers, the Process Vessel Ventilation (PVV) duct work now has the capability to be flushed to remove contamination. The caustic wash addition system has been modified to be a once-through system to improve equipment reliability, decrease downtime, and decrease dose to workers. In addition, the solvent that MCU utilizes to extract Cesium out of salt waste has been upgraded to Next Generation Solvent (NGS) which is based on MaxCalix extractant instead of a BobCalix extractant. Further, these upgrades and improvements have allowed MCU to be able to process at higher flow rates (up to 8.5 GPM) and with increased throughput (as high as 1.3 million gallons in FY13 and 5.3 million gallons since hot operations initiated) that have allowed SRR to continue the disposition of nuclear salt waste. The continued operation of MCU ensures more curies are stabilized into a glass matrix at SRS's Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) and less curies are retained within South Carolina at SRS's Saltstone Disposal Facility (SDF). Unique challenges associated with modifying and improving a demonstration plant that is in hot operations and was designed to be temporary with a limited plant footprint have been successfully overcome. Further, creative strategies for removing old equipment have been utilized given the limited decontamination agents available for use that will not interfere with the organic solvent. This paper presents and discusses the deployment of these upgrades and operational improvements to MCU in order to allow continued, increased salt waste processing beyond the initial design life. (authors)
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System Health and Status Reporting is Used to Improve Infrastructure Systems at the Hanford Site - 20449
Reliable physical infrastructure systems are vital to completing the clean-up mission and the start-up and commissioning of new nuclear waste processing facilities at the Hanford Site. Key infrastructure systems at Hanford include water, sewer, and electrical utilities, roads, telecommunications/network systems, and fire systems. All of the infrastructure systems are non-nuclear, General Service systems that are being maintained under formal engineering configuration control and none are specifically credited in any documented safety analysis (DSA). Starting in calendar year 2017, the Hanford Site's infrastructure and services contractor started producing system health and status reports for a total of 15 critical infrastructure systems as means to get a better understanding of each system's health and how it could be improved to ensure better and more reliable service delivery. As the reporting, tracking, and use of the metrics has matured, the number of systems for which reports are being developed has been expanded to a total of 23. Each of the critical infrastructure systems are assigned primary and alternate design authorities that complete qualifications on each assigned system. The design authorities actively manage and maintain configuration control on each of their systems and track metrics associated with availability, maintenance (corrective and preventive), and configuration of the technical baseline. The metrics are based on the principles established in Chapter V of DOE O 420.1C, Facility Safety, [1] and have been tailored as appropriate to each of the key infrastructure systems. An overall assessment of system health is performed and documented on a routine basis (e.g., quarterly). Included in this documentation is a quantitative score for each of the metrics (i.e., availability, maintenance, configuration management) along with results of system walk-downs, description of any permanent design modifications, identification of new or emerging issues and vulnerabilities affecting the system, and an assessment by the design authority of actions necessary to improve the system health score. The overall status scores are calculated using a formula and based on a pre-determined grading scale, a color is assigned for simple presentation. The information gained from developing the reports is being used to (1) assist with making timely and better informed decisions through the use of solid technical bases that are increasing the overall reliability and capabilities of the Site's infrastructure systems as new expense and capital projects in the Reliability Projects Investment Portfolio (RPIP) are prioritized and executed; (2) feed the risk management program, and (3) integrate the technical content of Master Plans that describe the Site's needs for the system and the system's capabilities to meet those future needs. (authors)
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On-Line Monitoring and Real-Time Characterization of Low Level Waste and Off-Gas Condensate Samples using Raman Spectroscopy - 19274
The demand for Hanford waste property analysis is expected to significantly increase as the U.S. Department of Energy River Protection Project progresses toward transferring waste to the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. The analysis of waste includes chemical, radionuclide, and physical property characterizations, with the goal of achieving safe/informed transfer and processing. Waste sampling followed by offline laboratory analysis is the current baseline analytical approach. The addition of field-deployed/in situ instruments has the potential to provide improvements and benefits over offline analysis in the areas of 1) Worker Safety: by reducing the need for sampling and thereby reducing the need for worker interaction with waste during sample handling; 2) Operational Efficiency: by reducing analysis turnaround times and offsetting demand on analytical laboratories; and 3) Accuracy: continuous analysis of a flowing waste stream allows cumulative results to be produced for the batch, which is more representative than discrete samples of batch properties. This paper describes the development and application of an online monitor to provide chemical characterizations; specifically, Raman spectroscopy is utilized to identify and quantify tank components. Accurate quantification is achieved through the use of chemometric analysis, which can be configured to provide real-time analysis in field deployment settings. (authors)
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AP-105 Melter Offgas Condensate and EMF Evaporator Concentrate Raman and LIBS Qualitative Evaluation for the use of In-Line Monitoring (Rev. 0)
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) was tasked to perform Raman spectroscopy and laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) testing on the melter off-gas condensate generated during low-activity waste process testing of a sample from Hanford Site tank AP-105 and/or evaporate from evaporation of the condensate. This was a proof-of-principle demonstration that Raman spectroscopy and LIBS have the potential to be used as analytical tools for in-line process analysis of key aqueous phase analytes in radioactive process streams associated with the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. The work completed under this project complements work completed for WRPS with the development of in-line monitoring systems to characterize and quantify constituents of tank waste following Cs removal and filtration. The WRPS work is currently limited to Raman sensors and utilizes chemometric models for quantification of several anionic species in the sample system. It should be noted that while this approach can be applied to off-gas condensate streams, new chemometric models are needed to accurately quantify analytes under off-gas condensate conditions. The work completed under this project makes timely use of available samples and equipment at PNNL. The project utilized the opportunity to collect off-gas samples from planned AP-105 processing work and included the direct condensate and the evaporate from the DFLAW Radioactive Waste Test Platform. Samples were characterized by instruments already in place at PNNL including a Raman spectrometer optimized for in-line monitoring of flowing and stationary samples as well as a LIBS instrument, which was optimized for static liquid droplet analysis. The ultimate objective was to determine if these techniques could be used to qualitatively characterize analytes present within the off-gas samples. The testing confirmed the use of the Raman as an in-line monitoring system was able to qualitatively observe NO 3 - , NO 2 - , aluminum (as aluminate, Al(OH) 4 - ), SO 4 2- , CrO 4 2- , CO 3 2- , and PO 4 3- in the AP-105 melter feed evaporator condensate samples. The testing also confirmed LIBS as a potential useful technique for in-line monitoring, able to qualitatively detect Na, N, Al, and tentatively Cr and Cl in a simulant stock evaporate solution.
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Engineering Controls for the Processing and Repackaging of Gloveboxes Contaminated with Plutonium - 19629
Gloveboxes used for processing plutonium (Pu)-238 at the US DOE Mound site in Miamisburg, Ohio, in support of the United States space mission were packaged in non-standard waste boxes and sent to the INL Site for temporary disposal. In addition to the gloveboxes, an assortment of smaller items, all with varying levels of Pu-238 contamination, were found in the non-standard waste boxes. The characteristics of Pu-238 make it especially difficult to contain and control contamination; alpha recoil phenomena and nanometer particle sizes lend to the contamination exhibiting near gas like characteristics. The Idaho Cleanup Project Core contractor, Fluor Idaho, LLC, engineered and deployed a waste processing containment with specialized ventilation and processes to characterize and disposition this waste. This paper summarizes the successes and lessons learned from processing Pu-238-contaminated waste. (authors)
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Savannah River Site High Level Radioactive Waste Tank Sample Thermolytic Hydrogen Generation - 20346
To support the revision of flammability calculations and controls for the Savannah River Site (SRS) High-Level Radioactive Waste (HLW) tanks, Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) conducted laboratory measurements with the goal of quantifying hydrogen produced in HLW by non-radiolytic chemical reactions (i.e., thermolysis). Testing was performed with HLW tank supernate samples that represented a cross section of types of waste at SRS, including tanks that store typical evaporator concentrate, dissolved salt-cake, dilute recycle stream from the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), evaporator concentrate of the recycle stream from DWPF, fresh waste from the canyon separations facility, and waste that has been through salt processing cesium removal. Non-radioactive simulant testing included the classes of organic compounds historically introduced into the HLW tanks that were recently shown to be the most active toward the thermolytic generation of hydrogen. The reaction rate equations developed for thermolytic hydrogen generation from each class of organic compound showed direct proportionality to organic compound concentration and hydroxide concentration. Simulant testing identified that highly concentrated waste with high hydroxide concentration had the highest rates of thermolytic hydrogen generation. Using the radioactive tank sample thermolysis measurements at high temperatures and the mechanistic salt dependence of the simulant models, a global model was developed for tank waste thermolytic hydrogen generation as a function of total organic carbon content of SRS HLW. Through the primary functionality of the global model (organic carbon and free hydroxide concentration), the relative reactivity of the organic carbon in the waste was quantified. (authors)
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SRS SWPF Construction Completion
Now that construction is complete, DOE and construction contractor Parsons, are focusing on testing the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) systems and training the workforce to operate the plant in preparation for the start of operations. Once in operation, the SWPF will significantly increase processing rates at SRS tank farms in an effort to empty the site’s high-level radioactive waste tanks.
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