The ability to effectively mix, sample, certify, and deliver consistent batches of high level waste (HLW) feed from the Hanford double shell tanks (DSTs) to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) presents a significant mission risk with potential to impact mission length and the quantity of HLW glass produced. The Department of Energy's (DOE's) Tank Operations Contractor (TOC), Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) is currently demonstrating mixing, sampling, and batch transfer performance in two different sizes of small-scale DSTs. The results of these demonstrations will be used to estimate full-scale DST mixing performance and provide the key input to a programmatic decision on the need to build a dedicated feed certification facility. This paper discusses the results from initial mixing demonstration activities and presents data evaluation techniques that allow insight into the performance relationships of the two small tanks. The next steps, sampling and batch transfers, of the small scale demonstration activities are introduced. A discussion of the integration of results from the mixing, sampling, and batch transfer tests to allow estimating full-scale DST performance is presented.

Vitrification technology has been selected to treat high-level waste (HLW) at the Hanford Site, the West Valley Demonstration Project and the Savannah River Site (SRS), and low activity waste (LAW) at Hanford. In addition, it may potentially be applied to other defense waste streams such as sodium bearing tank waste or calcine. Joule-heated melters (already in service at SRS) will initially be used at the Hanford Site's Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) to vitrify tank waste fractions. The glass waste content and melt/production rates at WTP are limited by the current melter technology. Significant reductions in glass volumes and mission life are only possible with advancements in melter technology coupled with new glass formulations. The Next Generation Melter (NGM) program has been established by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's), Environmental Management Office of Waste Processing (EM-31) to develop melters with greater production capacity (absolute glass throughput rate) and the ability to process melts with higher waste fractions. Advanced systems based on Joule-Heated Ceramic Melter (JHCM) and Cold Crucible Induction Melter (CCIM) technologies will be evaluated for HLW and LAW processing. Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), DOE's tank waste contractor, is developing and evaluating these systems in cooperation with …

Health physicists from the CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company collaborated with Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation to modify the SAM 940 isotope identifier instrument to be used for nuclear waste remediation. These modifications coupled with existing capabilities of the SAM 940 have proven to be invaluable during remediation activities, reducing disposal costs by allowing swift remediation of targeted areas that have been identified as having isotopes of concern (IOC), and eliminating multiple visits to sites by declaring an excavation site clear of IOCs before demobilizing from the site. These advantages are enabled by accumulating spectral data for specific isotopes that is nearly 100 percent free of false positives, which are filtered out in 'real time.'

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Richland Operations Office (RL) has adopted the 2015 Vision for Cleanup of the Hanford Site. This vision will protect the Columbia River, reduce the Site footprint, and reduce Site mortgage costs. The CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company's (CHPRC) Waste and Fuels Management Project (W&FMP) and their partners support this mission by providing centralized waste management services for the Hanford Site waste generating organizations. At the time of the CHPRC contract award (August 2008) slightly more than 9,000 m{sup 3} of waste was defined as 'no-path-forward waste.' The majority of these wastes are suspect transuranic mixed (TRUM) wastes which are currently stored in the low-level Burial Grounds (LLBG), or stored above ground in the Central Waste Complex (CWC). A portion of the waste will be generated during ongoing and future site cleanup activities. The DOE-RL and CHPRC have collaborated to identify and deliver safe, cost-effective disposition paths for 90% ({approx}8,000 m{sup 3}) of these problematic wastes. These paths include accelerated disposition through expanded use of offsite treatment capabilities. Disposal paths were selected that minimize the need to develop new technologies, minimize the need for new, on-site capabilities, and accelerate shipments of transuranic (TRU) waste to …

An eight-pole superconducting magnet is being developed for soft x-ray magnetic dichroism (XMD) experiments at the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory (LBNL). Eight conical Nb{sub 3}Sn coils with Holmium poles are arranged in octahedral symmetry to form four dipole pairs that provide magnetic fields of up to 5 T in any direction relative to the incoming x-ray beam. The dimensions of the magnet yoke as well as pole taper, diameter, and length were optimized for maximum peak field in the magnet center using the software package TOSCA. The structural analysis of the magnet is performed using ANSYS with the coil properties derived using a numerical homogenization scheme. It is found that the use of orthotropic material properties for the coil has an important influence in the design of the magnet.

Demonstrating that a waste form produced by a given immobilization process is chemically and physically durable as well as compliant with disposal facility acceptance criteria is critical to the success of a waste treatment program, and must be pursued in conjunction with the maturation of the waste processing technology. Testing of waste forms produced using differing scales of processing units and classes of feeds (simulants versus actual waste) is the crux of the waste form qualification process. Testing is typically focused on leachability of constituents of concern (COCs), as well as chemical and physical durability of the waste form. A principal challenge regarding testing immobilized low-activity waste (ILAW) forms is the absence of a standard test suite or set of mandatory parameters against which waste forms may be tested, compared, and qualified for acceptance in existing and proposed nuclear waste disposal sites at Hanford and across the Department of Energy (DOE) complex. A coherent and widely applicable compliance strategy to support characterization and disposal of new waste forms is essential to enhance and accelerate the remediation of DOE tank waste. This paper provides a background summary of important entities, regulations, and considerations for nuclear waste form qualification and disposal. Against …

The Savannah River Site (SRS) is storing plutonium (Pu) materials in the K-Area Materials Storage (KAMS) facility. The Pu materials were packaged according to the DOE-STD-3013 standard and shipped to the SRS in Type B 9975 packages. The robust 9975 shipping package was not designed for long-term product storage, but it is a specified part of the storage configuration and the KAMS facility safety basis credits the 9975 design with containment. Within the 9975 package, nested stainless steel containment vessels are closed with dual O-ring seals based on Viton{reg_sign} GLT or GLT-S fluoroelastomer. The aging behavior of the O-ring compounds is being studied to provide the facility with advanced notice of nonconformance and to develop life prediction models. A combination of field surveillance, leak testing of surrogate fixtures aged at bounding service temperatures, and accelerated-aging methodologies based on compression stress-relaxation and oxygen consumption analysis is being used to evaluate seal performance. A summary of the surveillance program relative to seal aging behavior is presented.

Basic engine thermodynamics predicts that spark ignited engine efficiency is a function of both the compression ratio of the engine and the specific heat ratio of the working fluid. In practice the compression ratio of the engine is often limited due to knock. Both higher specific heat ratio and higher compression ratio lead to higher end gas temperatures and increase the likelihood of knock. In actual engine cycles, heat transfer losses increase at higher compression ratios and limit efficiency even when the knock limit is not reached. In this paper we investigate the role of both the compression ratio and the specific heat ratio on engine efficiency by conducting experiments comparing operation of a single-cylinder variable-compression-ratio engine with both hydrogen-air and hydrogen-oxygen-argon mixtures. For low load operation it is found that the hydrogen-oxygen-argon mixtures result in higher indicated thermal efficiencies. Peak efficiency for the hydrogen-oxygen-argon mixtures is found at compression ratio 5.5 whereas for the hydrogen-air mixture with an equivalence ratio of 0.24 the peak efficiency is found at compression ratio 13. We apply a three-zone model to help explain the effects of specific heat ratio and compression ratio on efficiency. Operation with hydrogen-oxygen-argon mixtures at low loads is more …

This article employs a time series Landsat stack covering the period from 1995 to 2015 to detect the urban dynamics in Northwest Arkansas via a two-stage classification approach.

In 2010, an innovative, remotely operated retrieval system was deployed to successfully retrieve over 99.7% of the radioactive sludge from ten submerged tanks in Hanford's K-West Basin. As part of K-West Basin cleanup, the accumulated sludge needed to be removed from the 0.5 meter diameter by 5 meter long settler tanks and transferred approximately 45 meters to an underwater container for sampling and waste treatment. The abrasive, dense, non-homogeneous sludge was the product of the washing process of corroded nuclear fuel. It consists of small (less than 600 micron) particles of uranium metal, uranium oxide, and various other constituents, potentially agglomerated or cohesive after 10 years of storage. The Settler Tank Retrieval System (STRS) was developed to access, mobilize and pump out the sludge from each tank using a standardized process of retrieval head insertion, periodic high pressure water spray, retraction, and continuous pumping of the sludge. Blind operations were guided by monitoring flow rate, radiation levels in the sludge stream, and solids concentration. The technology developed and employed in the STRS can potentially be adapted to similar problematic waste tanks or pipes that must be remotely accessed to achieve mobilization and retrieval of the sludge within.

At the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford Site in southeast Washington State, CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M HILL) is underway on a first-of-a-kind project with the decommissioning and demolition of the U Canyon. Following the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) Record of Decision for the final remediation of the canyon, CH2M HILL is combining old and new technology and techniques to prepare U Canyon for demolition. The selected remedial action called first for consolidating and grouting equipment currently in the canyon into lower levels of the plant (openings called cells), after which the cell galleries, hot pipe trench, ventilation tunnel, drains and other voids below the operating deck and crane-way deck levels will be filled with approximately 20,000 cubic yards of grout and the canyon roof and walls demolished down to the approximate level of the canyon deck. The remaining canyon structure will then be buried beneath an engineered barrier designed to control potential contaminant migration for a 500-year life. Methods and lessons learned from this project will set the stage for the future demolition of Hanford's four other canyon-type processing facilities.

Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), the Hanford tank farm contractor, is tasked with the long term planning of the cleanup mission. Cleanup plans do not explicitly reflect the mission effects associated with tank farm operating equipment failures. EnergySolutions, a subcontractor to WRPS has developed, in conjunction with WRPS tank farms staff, an Operations Research (OR) model to assess and identify areas to improve the performance of the Waste Feed Delivery Systems. This paper provides an example of how OR modeling can be used to help identify and mitigate operational risks at the Hanford tank farms.

An innovative interim surface barrier was constructed as a demonstration project at the Hanford Site's TY Tank Farm. The purpose of the demonstration barrier is to stop rainwater and snowmelt from entering the soils within the tank farm and driving contamination from past leaks and spills toward the ground water. The interim barrier was constructed using a modified asphalt material with very low permeability developed by MatCon{reg_sign}. Approximately 2,400 cubic yards of fill material were added to the tank farm to create a sloped surface that will gravity drain precipitation to collection points where it will be routed through buried drain lines to an evapotranspiration basin adjacent to the farm. The evapotranspiration basin is a lined basin with a network of perforated drain lines covered with soil and planted with native grasses. The evapotranspiration concept was selected because it prevents the runoff from percolating into the soil column and also avoids potential monitoring and maintenance issues associated with standing water in a traditional evaporation pond. Because of issues associated with using standard excavation and earth moving equipment in the farm a number of alternate construction approaches were utilized to perform excavations and prepare the site for the modified asphalt.

This article gives comment to a previous article published in 'Molecular Pharmaceuticals' titled, "Structural Determinants of Drug Partitioning in Surrogates of Phosphatidylcholine Bilayer Strata."

Article on family perspectives on the hospice experience in adult family homes.

This article discusses the development of surface-SFED models for polar solvents.

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The cold crucible inductive melting (CCIM) technology successfully applied for vitrification of low- and intermediate-level waste (LILW) at SIA Radon, Russia, was tested to be implemented for vitrification of high-level waste (HLW) stored at Savannah River Site, USA. Mixtures of Sludge Batch 2 (SB2) and 4 (SB4) waste surrogates and borosilicate frits as slurries were vitrified in bench- (236 mm inner diameter) and full-scale (418 mm inner diameter) cold crucibles. Various process conditions were tested and major process variables were determined. Melts were poured into 10L canisters and cooled to room temperature in air or in heat-insulated boxes by a regime similar to Canister Centerline Cooling (CCC) used at DWPF. The products with waste loading from ~40 to ~65 wt.% were investigated in details. The products contained 40 to 55 wt.% waste oxides were predominantly amorphous; at higher waste loadings (WL) spinel structure phases and nepheline were present. Normalized release values for Li, B, Na, and Si determined by PCT procedure remain lower than those from EA glass at waste loadings of up to 60 wt.%.

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