New challenges in the safety analysis of DOE's high-level waste tanks

摘要

Tank 241-SY-101, located at the Department of Energy Hanford Site, has periodically released up to 283 m(sup 3) (10,000 ft(sup 3)) of flammable gas. This release has been one of the highest priority DOE operational safety problems because of potential consequences if the gas were ignited during one of these releases. The gases include hydrogen and ammonia (fuels) and nitrous oxide (oxidizer). There have been many opinions regarding the controlling mechanisms for these releases, but demonstrating an adequate understanding of the problem, selecting a mitigation methodology, and preparing the safety analysis have presented numerous new challenges. The purpose of this report is to present an overview of the problem, the main issues, the method selected to mitigate this hazard, and the results of the mitigation program.