Impact of Simulant Production Methods on the Physical Properties of DWPF Sludge Batch 3 Simulant

摘要

The research and development programs in support of the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) and other high level waste vitrification processes require the use of both nonradioactive waste simulants and actual waste samples. The nonradioactive waste simulants have been used for laboratory testing, pilot-scale testing and full-scale integrated facility testing. These waste simulants were designed to reproduce the chemical and, if possible, the physical properties of the actual high level waste. This technical report documents a study of simulant production methods for high level waste simulated sludge and their impact on the physical properties of the waste simulant. The limited testing performed as part of this program demonstrated that many factors influence the physical properties of a sludge simulant. Factors such as order of chemical addition, mixing (shear) rate and temperature have been shown to modify sludge batches that were compositionally the same. The results of the current sludge preparation study indicate that there are many methods of modifying the physical properties of a DWPF sludge simulant. Additional studies are recommended to improve our understanding of the important properties (chemical and physical) of DWPF sludges.