Final Report-Glass Formulation Development and Testing for DWPF High A1203 HLW Sludges, VSL-10R1670-1, Rev. 0. Dated 12/20/10.

摘要

Implementation of aluminum (Al)-dissolution for future processing of selected sludge batches is being considered at the Savannah River Site (SRS). In this process, some of the aluminum is dissolved from the high-level waste (HLW) solids. The resulting reduction in HLW sludge mass after Al-dissolution is expected to decrease the number of canisters of HLW glass to be produced at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). The obvious benefits of reduced sludge mass, however, need to be weighed against various technical issues associated with implementation of the process. These issues include the impacts of Al-dissolution on glass formulations and on glass production rates, both of which determine waste throughput at the DWPF. Al-dissolution was performed on Sludge Batch 5 (SB5) and Sludge Batch 6 (SB6) at SRS. For subsequent sludge batches, preliminary studies have been performed to evaluate the downstream impacts of Al-dissolution (see, for example, references (1-2)), with the results pointing to the need for a thorough cost-benefit analysis before a technically sound decision can be made concerning implementation of the process for all sludge batches.