The Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) was home to nuclear fuel reprocessing activities for decades at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. As a result of the reprocessing activities, INTEC has accumulated approximately one million gallons of acidic, radioactive, sodium-bearing waste (SBW). The purpose of this demonstration was to investigate a reforming technology, offered by ThermoChem Waste Remediation, LLC, (TWR) for treatment of SBW into a ''road ready'' waste form that would meet the waste acceptance criteria for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). TWR is the licensee of Manufacturing Technology Conservation International (MTCI) steam-reforming technology in the field of radioactive waste treatment. A non-radioactive simulated SBW was used based on the known composition of waste tank WM-180 at INTEC. Rhenium was included as a non-radioactive surrogate for technetium. Data was collected to determine the nature and characteristics of the product, the operability of the technology, the composition of the off-gases, and the fate of key radionuclides (cesium and technetium) and volatile mercury compounds. The product contained a low fraction of elemental carbon residues in the cyclone and filter vessel catches. Mercury was quantitatively stripped from the product but cesium, rhenium (Tc surrogate), and the heavy metals …

Balance confirmation tests usually include eccentricity, linearity, and repeatability. The latter is a measure of the random variability of the instrument. Further, repeatability is usually based on 10 consecutive measurements of a mass standard in a short period of time. The test results are used to verify the balance performs within manufacturer's specifications. These test results are often used in calculating an estimate of the uncertainty in measurements made with the balance. Uncertainty estimates, used to quantify the quality of measurements, must accurately estimate the magnitude of these errors. Does the repeatability test provide a realistic estimate of the random variation in the weighing process? The authors had concerns that it may not. The reproducibility estimate of the balance needs to be determined for the variables that will change between measurements of the same material while the other parameters are held constant by procedures and training.

Computational fluid dynamics methods were used to recommend a slurry pump operational strategy for sludge heel removal in Tank 8. Flow patterns calculated by the model were used to evaluate the performance of various combinations of operating pumps and their orientation. The models focused on removal of the sludge heel located at the east side of Tank 8 using the four existing slurry pumps. The models and calculations were based on prototypic tank geometry and expected normal operating conditions as defined by Waste Removal Closure (WRC) Engineering. The calculated results demonstrated that for pump speeds higher than 1800 rpm and at a 130 inch liquid level, a recommended orientation of the slurry pumps could be provided, based on a minimum sludge suspension velocity of 2.27 ft per sec. Further results showed that the time to reach a steady-state flow pattern was affected by both the tank level and the pump speed. Sensitivity studies showed that for a given pump speed, a higher tank level and a lower pump nozzle elevation would result in better performance in suspending and removing the sludge. The results also showed that the presence of flow obstructions were advantageous for certain pump orientations.

As part of the global synthesis effort sponsored by the Global Carbon Cycle project of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Department of Energy, a comprehensive comparison was performed of inorganic carbon parameters measured on oceanographic surveys carried out under auspices of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study and related programs. Many of the cruises were performed as part of the World Hydrographic Program of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment and the NOAA Ocean-Atmosphere Carbon Exchange Study. Total dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total alkalinity (TAlk), fugacity of CO{sub 2}, and pH data from twenty-three cruises were checked to determine whether there were systematic offsets of these parameters between cruises. The focus was on the DIC and TAlk state variables. Data quality and offsets of DIC and TAlk were determined by using several different techniques. One approach was based on crossover analyses, where the deep-water concentrations of DIC and TAlk were compared for stations on different cruises that were within 100 km of each other. Regional comparisons were also made by using a multiple-parameter linear regression technique in which DIC or TAlk was regressed against hydrographic and nutrient parameters. When offsets of greater than 4 {micro}mol/kg were observed …

The Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC) was home to nuclear fuel reprocessing activities for decades at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. As a result of the reprocessing activities, INTEC has accumulated approximately one million gallons of acidic, radioactive, sodium-bearing waste (SBW). The purpose of this demonstration was to investigate a reforming technology, offered by THORsm Treatment Technologies, LLC, for treatment of SBW into a ''road ready'' waste form that would meet the waste acceptance criteria for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). A non-radioactive simulated SBW was used based on the known composition of waste tank WM-180 at INTEC. Rhenium was included as a non-radioactive surrogate for technetium. Data was collected to determine the nature and characteristics of the product, the operability of the technology, the composition of the off-gases, and the fate of key radionuclides (cesium and technetium) and volatile mercury compounds. The product contained a low fraction of elemental carbon residues in the cyclone and filter vessel catches. Mercury was quantitatively stripped from the product but cesium, rhenium (Tc surrogate), and the heavy metals were retained. Nitrates were not detected in the product and NOx destruction exceeded 98%. The demonstration was successful.

Regulations governing deep injection of industrial wastes for disposal require regular tests for monitoring the formation hydraulic properties changes in the vicinity of the wellbore. Such a monitoring is performed through transient pressure well testing, a procedure that is routinely used in the environmental and oil industries. In such tests, the pumping pressures and rates are recorded and analyzed to estimate the transmissivity and storativity of the rock in the vicinity of the wellbore. Numerous methods for analyzing such data have been developed since the pioneering paper by Theis (1935). The well test analysis methods are summarized in several monographs, see, e.g., Earlougher (1977) and Matthews (1967). Traditional well test analysis methods are often based on estimating the slope of the pressure fall-off curve in a special time scale, e.g., using the Horner plot method (Horner, 1951). Such an approach is justified by asymptotic analysis of the pressure change relative to a uniform initial pressure distribution. However, in reality, such an initial condition may not hold true because the operations preceding the test make the pressure distribution not uniform. It has been demonstrated in Silin and Tsang (2002, 2003) that in the Horner plot method, this circumstance partially explains the …

Between 1952 and 1970, DOE buried mixed waste in pits and trenches that now have special cleanup needs. The disposal practices used decades ago left these landfills and other trenches, pits, and disposal sites filled with three million cubic meters of buried waste. This waste is becoming harmful to human safety and health. Today's cleanup and waste removal is time-consuming and expensive with some sites scheduled to complete cleanup by 2006 or later. An interim solution to the DOE buried waste problem is to encapsulate and hydraulically isolate the waste with a geomembrane barrier and monitor the performance of the barrier over its 50-yr lifetime. The installed containment barriers would isolate the buried waste and protect groundwater from pollutants until final remediations are completed. The DOE has awarded a contract to RAHCO International, Inc.; of Spokane, Washington; to design, develop, and test a novel subsurface barrier installation system, referred to as a Subsurface Containment System (SCS). The installed containment barrier consists of commercially available geomembrane materials that isolates the underground waste, similar to the way a swimming pools hold water, without disrupting hazardous material that was buried decades ago. The barrier protects soil and groundwater from contamination and effectively meets …

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This CRADA was a continuation of earlier work with Micro-Grain, Inc. to develop power, high frequency microwave treatment process to treat insect infested grain. ORNLs role was as a subcontractor to Micro-Grain's Phase II SBIR project funded by the US Department of Agriculture. The primary objective was to develop a commercial scale prototype unit capable of treating infested grain at flow rates approaching 1 kg/sec, which is required to be viable in the grain handling industry. A flow rate of {approx} 0.12 Kg/second was demonstrated at 20 kW microwave power level with 100% kill rate. The system is capable of 200 kW however waveguide arcing due to grain dust in the waveguide limited the power to 20 kW during the tests. Development tasks performed during the project included modification of an existing high-power microwave exposure facility to uniformly process large grain samples at high flow rates and improved instrumentation to detect grain flow and uniformity. Microwave processing tasks include a series of controlled exposure tests using infested grain samples provided and analyzed by the University of Oklahoma. Grain samples were infested with red flour beetles which proved the most difficult to kill in earlier tests. Most of the samples processed …

A deformation experiment has been developed specifically for the purpose of validation of dislocation dynamics simulations of plastic flow up to strains on the order of 1% [1]. The experiment has been designed so that a compressive uniaxial stress field is essentially super imposed on the test sample, and the crystal is free to deform with 3 orthogonal translation directions, and 3 rotation/tilt axes of freedom and has been given the name ''6-degrees of freedom'' (6DOF) experiment. The rotation, tilt and translation of the crystal are monitored by 5 laser displacement gages and 3 extensometers. Experiments are being performed on high purity Mo single crystals orientated for ''single slip''. All of the experiments are performed in pairs, with one test sample having highly polished surfaces for optical light and AFM slip-trace analyses, and the other having 4 strain gage rosettes mounted on the sides for measurement of the bi-axial surface strains during testing. All of the experimental data is used together to determine the slip activity of the orientated single crystal during deformation. Experimental results on high-purity Mo single crystals are presented. The results of these experiments show that slip behavior is in substantial deviation from the expected ''Schmid'' behavior. …