Large quantities of radioactive wastes have been generated at the Hanford Site over its operating life. The wastes with the highest activities are stored underground in 177 large (mostly one million gallon volume) concrete tanks with steel liners. The wastes contain processing chemicals, cladding chemicals, fission products, and actinides that were neutralized to a basic pH before addition to the tanks to prevent corrosion of the steel liners. Because the mission of the Hanford Site was to provide plutonium for defense purposes, the amount of plutonium lost to the wastes was relatively small. The best estimate of the amount of plutonium lost to all the waste tanks is about 500 kg. Given uncertainties in the measurements, some estimates are as high as 1,000 kg (Roetman et al. 1994). The wastes generally consist of (1) a sludge layer generated by precipitation of dissolved metals from aqueous wastes solutions during neutralization with sodium hydroxide, (2) a salt cake layer formed by crystallization of salts after evaporation of the supernate solution, and (3) an aqueous supernate solution that exists as a separate layer or as liquid contained in cavities between sludge or salt cake particles. The identity of chemical species of plutonium in …

This CSER gives the limits for the storage of one-gallon cans in the hot cells and the SERF in the 327 Building. The 327 Building is used to perform post irradiation testing of fissionable materials in remotely manipulated hot cells. Historically, scrap pieces of fuel cladding, cleanup materials, and other items have been placed into one-gallon paint cans for storage and ultimately disposal. These cans of materials had been assumed to contain no (or essentially no) fissionable materials, and therefore were not specifically controlled for material accountability. Recently, eight cans with high radiation levels were selected to be assayed for content. These cans contained from 0 to 2.5 grams of fissionable material, with an average of 1 gram per can. Since several of the hot cells contained a significant quantity of the cans, concerns were raised as to whether a CPS nonconformance had occurred, and should the cans have some limits for operation placed on them. This analysis is a response to the concerns raised, and gives guidance for incorporating operating limits for the one-gallon waste cans.

The purpose of this document is: (1) to review the HTI Mission Analysis and related documents to determine their suitability for use in developing performance measures for AX Tank Farm closure, (2) to determine the completeness and representativeness of selected alternative closure scenarios, (3) to determine the completeness of current plans for development of tank end-state criteria, and (4) to analyze the activities that are necessary and sufficient to recommend the end-state criteria and performance measures for the AX Tank Farm and recommend activities not currently planned to support establishment of its end-state criteria.

On the base program, testing was completed at the Tampa Electric Company`s (TECo`s) Big Bend Station in November 1992. The upgrade option tested was DBA additive. Additional testing was conducted at this site during the previous quarter (April through June 1997). Results from that testing were presented in the Technical Progress Report dated July 1997. For Option I, at the Hoosier Energy Merom Station, results from another program co-funded by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association have been combined with results from DOE-funded testing. Three upgrade options have been tested: DBA additive, sodium formate additive, and high pH set-point operation. All testing was completed by November 1992. There were no activities for this site during the current quarter. Option II involved testing at the Southwestern Electric Power Company Pirkey Station. Both sodium formate and DBA additives were tested as potential upgrade options. All of the testing at this site was completed by May 1993. On Option III, for testing at the PSI Energy Gibson Station, testing with sodium formate additive was completed in early October 1993, and a DBA additive performance and consumption test was completed in March of 1994. There were no …

This report provides an independent evaluation of information for a Windows based Human Machine Interface (HMI) to replace the existing DOS based Iconics HMI currently used in the Data Acquisition and Control System (DACS) used at Tank 241-SY-101. A fundamental reason for this evaluation is because of the difficulty of maintaining the system with obsolete, unsupported software. The DACS uses a software operator interface (Genesis for DOS HMI) that is no longer supported by its manufacturer, Iconics. In addition to its obsolescence, it is complex and difficult to train additional personnel on. The FY 1997 budget allocated $40K for phase 1 of a software/hardware upgrade that would have allowed the old DOS based system to be replaced by a current Windows based system. Unfortunately, budget constraints during FY 1997 has prompted deferral of the upgrade. The upgrade needs to be performed at the earliest possible time, before other failures render the system useless. Once completed, the upgrade could alleviate other concerns: spare pump software may be able to be incorporated into the same software as the existing pump, thereby eliminating the parallel path dilemma; and the newer, less complex software should expedite training of future personnel, and in the process, …

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