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At least 469 records · Page 26
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Cesium Removal from SY-101 Tank Waste Using Crystalline Silicotitanate

The newly operational Tank Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) system removes radioactive cesium-137 ( 137 Cs) and solids from tank waste supernate in the 200 east area of the Hanford site. Efforts to expand the removal capabilities to the 200 west area are underway by a system anticipated to be called the West Area Risk Management (WARM) system. Laboratory-scale ion exchange processing using expected WARM unit operations were conducted to contribute toward Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) establishing accurate process flowsheets for the individual feed campaigns planned for the west area supernate pretreatment. This report describes the small-scale ion exchange testing with 8.0 L of filtered supernate from tank 241-SY-101 (referred to as SY-101) at 16 °C (62 °F) to demonstrate processing conditions that would be prototypic of what the WARM system may experience. One of the waste acceptance criteria (WAC) for the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) Low-Activity Waste Facility is that the waste must contain less than 3.18×10 -5 Ci 137 Cs per mole of Na. For the SY-101 tank waste to meet this criterion, only 0.44% of the influent 137 Cs concentration may be delivered to the WTP; this requires a Cs decontamination factor of 227. Testing with SY-101 matched current TSCR prototypic operations where a lead-lag configuration is used until the lag column reached the WAC limit. Neither the lead nor lag columns reached the WAC, so a polish column was never utilized during this test. Feed was processed at 1.9 bed volumes (BVs) per hour; the flowrate, in terms of contact time with the crystalline silicotitate (CST) bed, matched the current flowrate at TSCR (an expected flowrate to be used at WARM). The lead column only reached 0.09% Cs breakthrough after processing ~1363 BVs of feed. Cesium breakthrough from the lag column was not observed during the entire processing. Table S.1 and Figure S.1 summarize the observed column performance and relevant Cs loading characteristics. Table S.1 and Figure S.1 also summarize the measured SY-101 Cs load performance.

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DOE OSTI2022

Integrated CO 2 -facilitated Hydrometallurgical and Electrochemical Technology for Sustainable Mining and Recovery of Critical Elements from Wastes and Ashes

The availability of critical materials and other metals is very important for our national security and economic growth since they are widely used in defense and energy applications including batteries and wind turbines. Unfortunately, high grade ores have become scarce and their productions is dominated by limited countries. Thus, there is a strong need to obtain these materials from domestic sources. Municipal wastes are great candidates since they often contain high concentrations of metals. Since the metals in wastes and waste ashes are not in the form found in natural ores and contain a wide range of impurities, conventional extraction processes would not be effective. Thus, our project has developed an innovative MIDAS process based on the integrated CO2-facilitated hydrometallurgical and electrochemical technology that can effectively recover critical materials and metals from waste ashes while minimizing the environmental impacts. We have (i) characterized waste ashes to understand their physico-chemical properties, (ii) developed green solvent systems for hydrometallurgical extraction of critical elements and metals from waste ashes, (iii) explored electrochemical interfaces to refine the extracted metals.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Annual Transuranic Waste Inventory Report – 2020 (Data Cutoff Date 12/31/2019)

The purpose of this Annual Transuranic Waste Inventory Report (ATWIR) – 2020 is to document the inventory estimate of transuranic (TRU) waste reported by the TRU waste generator sites as of December 31, 2019. This report also notes major changes to the inventory used for the ATWIR-2019 that had a data cutoff date of December 31, 2018. This updated inventory information is available to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) TRU waste complex, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) stakeholders, and regulators. The TRU waste inventory information is used for strategic planning, and supports the DOE Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) input into documents (e.g., WIPP Documented Safety Analysis and National Environmental Policy Act analyses), planned changes, and other design changes as needed for the WIPP project.

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DOE OSTI2021

Annual Transuranic Waste Inventory Report – 2021 (Data Cutoff Date 12/31/2020)

The purpose of this Annual Transuranic Waste Inventory Report (ATWIR) – 2021 is to document the inventory estimate of transuranic (TRU) waste reported by the TRU waste generator sites as of December 31, 2020. This report also notes major changes to the inventory used for the ATWIR-2020 that had a data cutoff date of December 31, 2019. This updated inventory information is available to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) TRU waste complex, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) stakeholders, and regulators. The TRU waste inventory information is used for strategic planning, and supports the DOE Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) input into documents (e.g., WIPP Documented Safety Analysis and National Environmental Policy Act analyses), planned changes, and other design changes as needed for the WIPP project.

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DOE OSTI2022

Annual Transuranic Waste Inventory Report – 2022 (Data Cutoff Date 12/31/2021)

The purpose of this Annual Transuranic Waste Inventory Report (ATWIR) – 2022 is to document the inventory estimate of transuranic (TRU) waste reported by the TRU waste generator sites as of December 31, 2021. This report also notes major changes to the inventory since the ATWIR-2021, which had a data cutoff date of December 31, 2020. This updated inventory information is available to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) TRU waste complex, Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) stakeholders, and regulators. The TRU waste inventory information is used for strategic planning, and supports the DOE Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO) input into documents (e.g., WIPP Documented Safety Analysis and National Environmental Policy Act evaluations), performance assessments, planned changes, and other design changes as needed for the WIPP project.

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DOE OSTI2023

E-Area Low-Level Waste Facility Multitiered Groundwater and Intruder Radionuclide Screening

Solid Waste Management (SWM) operates the E-Area Low-Level Waste Facility (ELLWF) where low level on-site and off-site solid waste streams are buried. The facility has been in operation since late 1994 and is currently projected to remain in operation until 2065. This facility can accommodate a broad range of waste forms resulting from the six different types of disposal unit (DU) options (i.e., varying degrees of engineered barriers → trenches to concrete vaults). This facility is currently operating under a Performance Assessment (PA) issued back in 2008 (WSRC 2008), along with several subsequent supporting Special Analyses (SAs). The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) developed the prior PAs and SAs and was tasked to update the facility’s upcoming PA, most likely to be issued during FY2023. For operating the E-Area facility, a Consolidated Waste Tracking System (CWTS) is actively employed by waste generators where every radionuclide entering the facility, to be buried in one of its many DUs1, must be either directly or indirectly tracked. Since there are many radionuclides in existence (>3,000), the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), specially ICRP Publication 107, has provided guidance on the subset of radionuclides requiring further assessment in landfills such as the ELLWF. The ICRP 107 publication provides critical radiological information on 1,252 radionuclides consisting of 97 elements. This database, along with the current dose coefficients that have been developed for these radionuclides in DOE-STD-1196-2011 (DOE 2011), is the critical starting point for developing a consistent inventory limit system.

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DOE OSTI2024

Characterization of Precipitate Reactor Feed Tank (PRFT) Batches 15, 22, and 26 from the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF)

The Savannah River Site (SRS) Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) processes a Monosodium Titanate/Sludge Solids (MST/SS) waste stream received from the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) via the Precipitate Reactor Feed Tank (PRFT). During processing, DWPF is required to provide evidence of compliance with the Waste Acceptance Product Specifications (WAPS) to ensure acceptance of their vitrified high-level waste (HLW) into the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System. Production Records must document the constituents of the MST/SS material in the PRFT from each salt batch (StB) processed at SWPF. Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC) has requested Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to analyze PRFT samples representing each SWPF salt batch for thirty-two radionuclides. Additionally, elemental analysis of PRFT slurry and MST/SS solids was performed to aid SRMC in further refinement of the inputs and assumptions used in future frit development and Material Tracking Program calculations. The analyses of PRFT Batches 15, 22, and 26, which corresponds to material from the processing of StB4, StB5, and StB7, respectively, are reported herein. The unwashed dried solids of the PRFT batches were found to be 86-87% MST. Additionally, the total sulfur values are well below the assumed 982 mg of sulfate/kg of PRFT slurry used in Material Tracking Program calculations.

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DOE OSTI2025

PFAS Waste Management for Industrial, Water, and Wastewater Treatment Facilities

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), are widely used in industrial and consumer products due to their unique water and oil repelling properties. These slow-degrading and bio-accumulating compounds, often called "forever chemicals," are not typically removed by conventional industrial and municipal water/wastewater (W/WW) treatment. This tip of the month provides comprehensive strategies for managing PFAS-contaminated waste streams. Understanding the various types of PFAS waste streams is the first step in managing them. Primary PFAS waste includes contaminated process W/WW and solid materials directly from the production and processing of PFAS-containing materials. These might come from manufacturing facilities, firefighting training areas, or other industrial operations where PFAS compounds are used or were historically present. Secondary PFAS waste results from treatment and disposal mechanisms of primary PFAS waste streams, including spent activated carbon, used ion exchange resins, membrane reject streams, PFAS-laden backwash water, landfill leachate, incineration residuals, etc. TABLE 1 lists examples of the most common PFAS waste streams in different industrial facilities.

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DOE OSTI2025

Reduction of Porosity in Cementitious Waste Forms to Reduce Effective Diffusivity

Although current practices meet regulations for grout waste forms, development of sequestration materials and techniques for contaminants of concern could expand the use of grout waste forms and reduce risk to established processes from future compositional changes. There are contaminants in waste streams that are not permanently and completely sequestered in current grout waste forms under certain conditions. These contaminants include methyl mercury, 129 I, 99 Tc, and nitrate. Each of these species have minor fractions that are not permanently and completely isolated from the environment and therefore potentially contribute to long-term environmental impacts. An approach of interest includes the technique of reducing porosity to result in reduced leachability of all contaminants simultaneously. The current Savannah River Site (SRS) saltstone formulation was used to evaluate the relationship between leachability and porosity reduced waste forms by altering the water-to-binder ratio. Results indicated decreasing the water-to-binder directly reduced porosity and resulted in the waste form’s ability to more effectively immobilize nitrate. This work was funded by the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) Technology Operations Office (TOO) Project # HQ221818.

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DOE OSTI2026

Trash to Treasure: Waste Carbon into Construction Materials

Mineralization of industrial waste and earth-abundant CO2 into value-added products is a powerful method of utilizing domestic resources to produce value from waste. Carbonate minerals formed from Ca and Mg rich waste streams are key constituents in cement and concrete, which are in demand at the gigaton-scale every year. While thermodynamically favorable, CO2 mineralization is hindered by slow kinetics, and traditional thermochemical routes are too expensive to scale. Here, we demonstrate the advantages of an electrochemical method of waste valorization, which eliminates this limitation and improves kinetics. We highlight this method's ability to initiate crystallization under favorable local conditions, producing carbonates from mining waste at mildly acidic pH. We highlight the effects of key constituents in mining waste on the mineralization process.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Perspective Chapter: Safe Disposal and Storage of Nuclear Waste

The use of nuclear energy inevitably generates nuclear waste as the byproduct of fission reactions. Depending on the initial composition of the fuel that goes into the reactor and the subsequent burn-up level, the chemistry of the resulting nuclear waste can vary substantially. This waste typically exhibits a broad spectrum of radioactivity and half-lives, making effective management one of the most critical challenges for global nuclear energy. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the origin and classification of nuclear waste and various strategies for its safe immobilization and disposal. The short- and long-term storage of waste with varying radioactivity is addressed. The significant technical and political complexities involving primarily long-term disposal are also discussed. To ensure the safe and permanent disposal of hazardous waste with extremely long half-lives, future efforts should focus on both technical innovation and public engagement.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS2003

Carbon balance in bioregenerative life support systems: some effects of system closure, waste management, and crop harvest index

In Advanced Life Support (ALS) systems with bioregenerative components, plant photosynthesis would be used to produce O2 and food, while removing CO2. Much of the plant biomass would be inedible and hence must be considered in waste management. This waste could be oxidized (e.g., incinerated or aerobically digested) to resupply CO2 to the plants, but this would not be needed unless the system were highly closed with regard to food. For example, in a partially closed system where some of the food is grown and some is imported, CO2 from oxidized waste when combined with crew and microbial respiration could exceed the CO2 removal capability of the plants. Moreover, it would consume some O2 produced from photosynthesis that could have been used by the crew. For partially closed systems it would be more appropriate to store or find other uses for the inedible biomass and excess carbon, such as generating soils or growing woody plants (e.g., dwarf fruit trees). Regardless of system closure, high harvest crops (i.e., crops with a high edible to total biomass ratio) would increase food production per unit area and O2 yields for systems where waste biomass is oxidized to recycle CO2. Such interlinking effects between the plants and waste treatment strategies point out the importance of oxidizing only that amount of waste needed to optimize system performance. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of COSPAR.

NASA Discipline Life Support Systems↗
DOE OSTI2026

Integrating Immersive Visualization in Molten-Salt Reactor Waste Management for Experimental Design and Planning

The Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) represents a significant innovation in nuclear technology, offering several operational and safety benefits over traditional solid-fuel reactors. However, MSRs face uncertainties in waste management due to their flexible designs and variable waste compositions. To address these challenges, we propose a visualization platform that illustrates solutions and performance predictions for various waste management strategies, enhancing user experience and improving strategy and communication. Immersive visualizations are widely used in the nuclear industry for training, simulation, and safety enhancement. Our project aims to develop a visualization platform incorporating virtual reality (VR) technologies to illustrate MSR characteristics immediately following reactor shutdown. This immersive simulation will allow users to interact, explore, and understand different waste management strategies. The platform will display MSR reactor characterizations, including nuclide decay, salt solidification, and corrosion, which are crucial for assessing and selecting backend management strategies. Using the Meta Quest 3 VR headset with Unity software, our platform will provide real-scale visualizations, enabling users to experience and evaluate designs and plans as if they were physically present. This user-friendly interface will make complex data accessible and understandable for non-domain experts, aiding in decision-making for MSR waste management. Our proposed visualization workflow can be applied to other nuclear reactors, assisting in the design and planning of waste management strategies.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Impact of gel concentration on filter fluxes in microfiltration of Hanford tank wastes and simulants

Abstract Treatment processes have been proposed that will utilize crossflow filtration to concentrate sludge waste streams at the Department of Energy's Hanford Site. Challenges associated with solid–liquid separation of the waste streams drive a necessary evaluation of available Hanford high level waste (HLW) filtration data. Limiting flux conditions during crossflow filtration are elucidated with the formation of a cake layer on the membrane surface. A mass transfer coefficient between the gel and bulk concentrations plays a critical role in determining filter flux. A correlation between the gel concentration and mass transfer coefficient is made to assist in determining filter performance of select HLW streams. As a process alternative to crossflow filtration, gravity settling of waste streams may be deployed as a solid–liquid separation technique. However, this results in a contrasting performance with the centrifuged solids concentration. A method was developed to estimate expected filtration and settling performance based on physical characterization data for Hanford tank waste samples. By assessing the estimated processing performance of HLW, technical support can be provided during flowsheet planning.

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DOE OSTI2021

Impacts of constraints and uncertainties on projected amount of Hanford low-activity waste glasses

A systematic evaluation of Hanford low-activity waste (LAW) loading in alkali-aluminoborosilicate glasses was performed. A set of 22 waste compositions were selected to represent the range of wastes anticipated across the Hanford mission. Glass composition was formulated for each waste to simultaneously satisfy a full cadre of property and composition constraints while maximizing waste loading. Glass properties were estimated using property models recently developed for Hanford LAW Facility operation. The impacts from the property and composition constraints on the glass mass to be produced were calculated and compared. Electrical conductivity, Vapor Hydration Test and SO 3 melter tolerance, and canister-centerline cooling crystal constraints have a large effect on reducing total glass mass, while the impact from Product Consistency Test, viscosity, and isothermal crystal constraints is relatively small. Additionally, effects of model prediction and process/composition uncertainties were quantified. The results identified areas of future research that could be useful to improve the efficiency of plant operation.

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DOE OSTI2022

Impact of feed variability on cesium removal with multiple actual waste samples from the Hanford site

Here, the Tank Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) system, under development by Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), will send initial low-activity Hanford waste tank supernate feeds to the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility. In addition to entrained solids removal from the supernate, the primary goal of TSCR is to remove cesium-137 ( 137 Cs) by ion exchange, allowing contact handling of the liquid effluent product at WTP. Crystalline silicotitanate (CST) ion exchange media, manufactured by Honeywell UOP (product IONSIV™ R9140-B), was selected as the ion exchange media at TSCR. This lot of material was found to have superior performance in comparison to historic batches of CST. Ion exchange column and batch contact testing with supernate from Hanford tanks AP-105, AP-107 and AW-102 was performed to assess the impact of feed variability on system performance. These tests demonstrated that batch contact measurements provide a reasonable prediction of column capacities with some deviation in performance attributed to column dynamics. In addition, the variability in CST capacity for cesium in the various actual waste samples does not track with historical understanding of the competing cations, suggesting that tank waste samples contain other components that may significantly impact cesium loading.

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DOE OSTI2022

Product Consistency Test Results for the Environmental Management Headquarters (EMHQ) Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Glasses

This report provides the results of the Product Consistency Test leachates from the Environmental Management Headquarters Low-Activity Waste glasses, a series of simulated nuclear waste glasses designed and fabricated at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The series included quenched versions of the glasses. These data will be used in the development, validation, and implementation of enhanced property/composition models for waste glass vitrification at Hanford. The measured concentrations of the analytes in the test blank samples were below detection limits. The measured concentrations of B, Li, Na, and Si in the Approved Reference Material-1 samples included with the Product Consistency Tests fell within control chart values indicating proper test performance. The measured glass compositions for the study glasses were close to target values: therefore, little difference was seen when evaluating the normalized values using the targeted or measured glass compositions. The $NC_B$, $NC_{Na}$, and $NC_{Si}$ values were less than the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant low-activity waste constraint of 4 g/L for all glasses.

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DOE OSTI2026

Volume Change from Solidification Correlation for Hanford Tank Waste.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Hanford Field Office’s primary mission is to safely and effectively treat Hanford’s tank waste and deliver environmental remediation. Mixed radioactive waste is stored in the underground tanks at the Hanford Site. It was recently estimated that retrieval of the waste in the 200 West Area underground tanks in the SY, S, SX, and U Tank Farms will result in about 41 million gallons of mixed low-level waste (MLLW) (RPP-RPT-65147, Rev. 1). The current plan is to retrieve at least 22 S, SX, and U Farm tanks and pretreat1 to produce pretreated tank waste (PTW) which will be further treated (including solidification /immobilization) for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Land Disposal Restriction (LDR) organics and inorganics before being transferred to an offsite out-of-state facility for disposal (RPP-PLAN-66135, Rev. 2). In addition, solidified PTW from the 200 East Area may also be transferred to an offsite out-of-state facility for disposal to ensure availability of critical Double-Shell Tank space, meet retrieval obligations, and optimize 200 East Area operations.

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