The Savannah River Site (SRS) is investigating the deployment of a parallel technology to the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF, presently under construction) to accelerate high activity salt waste processing. The proposed technology combines large waste tank strikes of monosodium titanate (MST) to sorb strontium and actinides with two ion exchange columns packed with crystalline silicotitanate (CST) resin to sorb cesium. The new process was designated Small Column Ion Exchange (SCIX), since the ion exchange columns were sized to fit within a waste storage tank riser. Loaded resins are to be combined with high activity sludge waste and fed to the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) for incorporation into the current glass waste form. Decontaminated salt solution produced by SCIX will be fed to the SRS Saltstone Facility for on-site immobilization as a grout waste form. Determining the potential impact of SCIX resins on DWPF processing was the basis for this study. Accelerated salt waste treatment is projected to produce a significant savings in the overall life cycle cost of waste treatment at SRS.

Aqueous radioactive high-level waste slurries are combined during processing steps that ultimately produce a stable borosilicate glass waste form. Chemically treated waste slurries are combined with each other and with glass frit-water slurries to produce the melter feed. Understanding the evolution of the rheological properties of the slurries is an important aspect of removing and treating the stored waste. To a first approximation, combinations of colloidal waste slurry with {approx}0.1-mm mean diameter glass frit or glass beads act in an analogous matter to slurries of spherical beads in Newtonian liquids. The non-Newtonian rheological properties of the waste slurries without frit, however, add complexity to the hydrodynamic analysis. The use of shear rate dependent apparent viscosities with the modified Einstein equation was used to model the rheological properties of aqueous frit-waste slurries.

The Savannah River National Laboratory is in the process of investigating factors suspected of impacting catalytic hydrogen generation in the Defense Waste Processing Facility, DWPF, Chemical Process Cell, CPC. Noble metal catalyzed hydrogen generation in simulation work constrains the allowable acid addition operating window in DWPF. This constraint potentially impacts washing strategies during sludge batch preparation. It can also influence decisions related to the addition of secondary waste streams to a sludge batch. Catalytic hydrogen generation data from 2002-2005 were reviewed. The data came from process simulations of the DWPF Sludge Receipt and Adjustment Tank, SRAT, and Slurry Mix Evaporator, SME. Most of the data was from the development work for the Sludge Batch 3 process flowsheet. This included simulant and radioactive waste testing. Preliminary Sludge Batch 4 data were also reviewed. A statistical analysis of SB3 simulant hydrogen generation data was performed. One factor considered in the statistical analysis was excess acid. Excess acid was determined experimentally as the acid added beyond that required to achieve satisfactory nitrite destruction.

Foaming in slurries and sludges is of immediate concern because of the environmental hazards posed during the safe disposal of radioactive wastes. The present research studied foaminess in simulated radioactive waste, which is a highly alkaline sludge, during dynamic conditions (i.e. boiling). A maximum in foaminess is observed which is due to two competing effects: Amphiphilic particles promoting foaminess by attachment to the bubble surfaces and foam inhibition due to clustering of particles. The maximum in foaminess was of the order of 400 vol% which is detrimental for the working of the commercial evaporator. The antifoaming action of a commercial antifoam agent was investigated as well as an improved antifoamer recently developed by IIT in conjunction with researchers at SRNL.

Radioactive waste treatment process usually involves concentration of radionuclides before waste can be immobilized by storing it in stable solid form. Foaming is observed at various stages of waste processing like SRAT (sludge receipt and adjustment tank) and melter operations. This kind of foaming greatly limits the process efficiency. The foam encountered can be characterized as a three-phase foam that incorporates finely divided solids (colloidal particles). The solid particles stabilize foaminess in two ways: by adsorption of biphilic particles at the surfaces of foam lamella and by layering of particles trapped inside the foam lamella. During bubble generation and rise, solid particles organize themselves into a layered structure due to confinement inside the foam lamella, and this structure provides a barrier against the coalescence of the bubbles, thereby causing foaming. Our novel capillary force balance apparatus was used to examine the particle-particle interactions, which affect particle layer formation in the foam lamella. Moreover, foaminess shows a maximum with increasing solid particle concentration. To explain the maximum in foaminess, a study was carried out on the simulated sludge, a non-radioactive simulant of the radioactive waste sludge at SRS, to identify the parameters that affect the foaming in a system characterized by the absence of surface-active agents. This three-phase foam does not show any foam stability unlike surfactant-stabilized foam. The parameters investigated were solid particle concentration, heating flux, and electrolyte concentration. The maximum in foaminess was found to be a net result of two countereffects that arise due to particle-particle interactions: structural stabilization and depletion destabilization. It was found that higher electrolyte concentration causes a reduction in foaminess and leads to a smaller bubble size. Higher heating fluxes lead to greater foaminess due to an increased rate of foam lamella generation in the sludge system.