Core samples originating from Vault 4, Cell E of the Saltstone Disposal Facility (SDF) were collected in September of 2008 (Hansen and Crawford 2009, Smith 2008) and sent to SRNL to measure chemical and physical properties of the material including visual uniformity, mineralogy, microstructure, density, porosity, distribution coefficients (K{sub d}), and chemical composition. Some data from these experiments have been reported (Cozzi and Duncan 2010). In this study, leaching experiments were conducted with a single core sample under conditions that are representative of saltstone performance. In separate experiments, reducing and oxidizing environments were targeted to obtain solubility and Kd values from the measurable species identified in the solid and aqueous leachate. This study was designed to provide insight into how readily species immobilized in saltstone will leach from the saltstone under oxidizing conditions simulating the edge of a saltstone monolith and under reducing conditions, targeting conditions within the saltstone monolith. Core samples were taken from saltstone poured in December of 2007 giving a cure time of nine months in the cell and a total of thirty months before leaching experiments began in June 2010. The saltstone from Vault 4, Cell E is comprised of blast furnace slag, class F fly …

In order to meet contract requirements on the concentrations of strontium-90 and transuranic isotopes in the immobilized low-activity waste, strontium-90 and transuranics must be removed from the supernate of tanks 241-AN-102 and 241-AN-107. The process currently proposed for this application is an in-tank precipitation process using strontium nitrate and sodium permanganate. Development work on the process has not proceeded since 2005. The purpose of the evaluation is to identify whether any promising alternative processes have been developed since this issue was last examined, evaluate the alternatives and the baseline process, and recommend which process should be carried forward.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) examined ultrasonic (UT) time-of-flight diffraction (TOFD) data from ten (10) nozzles in the Davis Besse Nuclear Power Plant reactor closure head. The TOFD data was acquired by AREVA after a bare metal visual examination of the pressure vessel head indicated potential leakage in at least one nozzle. A detailed analysis of the UT data shows that Nozzle 4 has three indications consistent with cracking in the penetration tube. One of the indications starts at the wetted side of the weld and progresses to the annulus. In addition, examination of UT data from the annulus region of Nozzle 4 displays an irregular pattern that could be associated with boric acid deposits and leakage/wastage in the interference fit. The review of TOFD data for the other nine nozzles resulted in several indications being detected in the weld region and near the inner diameter (ID) and outer diameter (OD) surfaces of the penetration tube, but no other indications that are consistent with cracking that may have resulted in leakage were observed. A review of the back-wall reflections in the other nine nozzles also did not show strong indications of leakage, although Nozzle 67 displayed an irregularly-shaped region of …

The objective of this Plant Directed Research and Demonstration (PDRD) task was to develop a system to safetly analyze tritium in moisture collected from glovebox atmospheres in the Savannah River Site (SRS) Tritium Facility. In order to minimize potential radiation exposures that could occur in handling and diluting high-tritium-content water, SRS sought alternatives to liquid-scintillation counting. The proposed system determines tritium concentrations by measuring Bremsstrahlung radiation induced by low-energy beta interactions in liquid samples. Results show that, after a short counting period (30 seconds), detection limits are three orders of magnitude below the described concentration of tritiated water in the zeolite beds. Additionally, this report covers the analysis of process samples and the investigation of several cell window materials including beryllium, aluminum, and copper. Final tests reveal that alternate window materials and thicknesses can be used to obtain useful results. In particular, a window of stainless steel of moderate thickness (0.3 cm) can be used for counting relatively high levels of tritium.

In this present work we report the growth of Cd{sub 0.9}Zn{sub 0.1}Te doped with In by a modified THM technique. It has been demonstrated that by controlling the microscopically flat growth interface, the size distribution and concentration can be drastically reduced in the as-grown ingots. This results in as-grown detector-grade CZT by the THM technique. The three-dimensional size distribution and concentrations of Te inclusions/precipitations were studied. The size distributions of the Te precipitations/inclusions were observed to be below the 10-{micro}m range with the total concentration less than 10{sup 5} cm{sup -3}. The relatively low value of Te inclusions/precipitations results in excellent charge transport properties of our as-grown samples. The ({mu}{tau}){sub e} values for different as-grown samples varied between 6-20 x 10{sup -3} cm{sup 2}/V. The as-grown samples also showed fairly good detector response with resolution of {approx}1.5%, 2.7% and about 3.8% at 662 keV for quasi-hemispherical geometry for detector volumes of 0.18 cm{sup 3}, 1 cm{sup 3} and 4.2 cm{sup 3}, respectively.

Residual impurities in manganese (Mn) are a big obstacle to obtaining high-performance CdMnTe (CMT) X-ray and gamma-ray detectors. Generally, the zone-refining method is an effective way to improve the material's purity. In this work, we purified the MnTe compounds combining the zone-refining method with molten Te, which has a very high solubility for most impurities. We confirmed the improved purity of the material by glow-discharge mass spectrometry (GDMS). We also found that CMT crystals from a multiply-refined MnTe source, grown by the vertical Bridgman method, yielded better performing detectors.

The objective of this work is, through modeling, to predict the performance of Crystalline Silicotitinate (CST) for the removal of cesium from Small Column Ion Exchange (SCIX) Batches 1-4 (as proposed in Revision 16 of the Liquid Waste System Plan). The scope of this task is specified in Technical Task Request (TTR) 'SCIX Feed Modeling', HLE-TTR-2011-003, which specified using the Zheng, Anthony, Miller (ZAM) code to predict CST isotherms for six given SCIX feed compositions and the VErsatile Reaction and SEparation simulator for Liquid Chromatography (VERSE-LC) code to predict ion-exchange column behavior. The six SCIX feed compositions provided in the TTR represent SCIX Batches 1-4 and Batches 1 and 2 without caustic addition. The study also investigated the sensitivity in column performance to: (1) Flow rates of 5, 10, and 20 gpm with 10 gpm as the nominal flow; and (2) Temperatures of 25, 35, and 45 C with 35 C as the nominal temperature. The isotherms and column predictions presented in this report reflect the expected performance of engineered CST IE-911. This form of CST was used in experiments conducted at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) that formed the basis for estimating model parameters (Hamm et al., 2002). …

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