A Strategy to Conduct an Analysis of the Long-Term Performance of Low-Activity Waste Glass in a Shallow Subsurface Disposal System at Hanford

McGrail, B.P.; Ebert, W.L.; Bacon, D.H.; Strachan, DM

doi:10.2172/727

Cited by 17 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Each of the steps taken over the past 19 years has been with the goal of improving the technical defensibility of the PA for the disposal of ILAW glass at Hanford in accordance with the regulations outlined in DOE Order 435.1 (formerly DOE Order 5820.2A) (DOE, 1988;DOE, 1998). The discussion below begins with the 1994 initial facility design evaluation (Mann, 1995b;Rawlins et al, 1994), briefly discusses 1996 interim PA and associated data packages evaluation (Mann, 1995a;Mann, 1995b;Mann, 1995c;Mann, 1995d;Mann et al, 1995;Mann et al, 1996;Mann et al, 1997), then includes a short discussion of the 1998 and 2001 PAs and associated data packages (Mann et al, 1998a;Mann et al, 1998b;Mann et al, 2001;McGrail et al, 1998b;McGrail et al, 2000a;McGrail et al, 2000b;McGrail et al, 2000c;McGrail et al, 2001b), and closes with a discussion of the glass performance data collected from 2004 through 2013.…”

Section: Historical Synopsis Of Ilaw Glass Performance Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The PA conducted in 1998 was to support the application for a Disposal Authorization Statement (Mann et al, 1998a), and coincided with a revision to the Radioactive Waste Management Order, which changed from DOE Order 5820.2A to DOE Order 435.1 (DOE, 1998). Prior to initiating the data collection effort with the goal of filling gaps that were identified in the 1996 PA, an ILAW testing strategy was developed to document the expected laboratory and field-scale testing, as well as model development activities required to evaluate the long-term corrosion behavior of LAW glass in the disposal facility at Hanford (McGrail et al, 1998b). This strategy was reviewed by a panel consisting of national and international glass corrosion experts prior to being adopted by the TWRS program for the 1998 PA (DOE, 1999;DOE, 2001;Grambow et al, 2000).…”

Section: Historical Synopsis Of Ilaw Glass Performance Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The reference glass composition, along with several other preliminary glass compositions, was evaluated using PCT, a vapor hydration test (VHT), and several of the methods described in the 1998 and updated 2000 LAW glass testing strategy documents, such as the SPFT and PUF tests (McGrail et al, 1998b;McGrail et al, 2000a). The latter tests are used to derive rate law parameters that can then be used in modeling efforts.…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similar to LAWA23, durability test experiments (i.e., PUF and PCT) with the LAWA33 glass demonstrated accelerated corrosion (e.g., Stage III, see Section 3.0). However, unlike LAWA23, the performance of LAWA33 was consistent for slow-cooled and quenched samples (McGrail et al, 1998b). The LAWA33 glass composition was then modified by PNNL to develop a glass with high performance and 20 wt% Na 2 O by increasing the mass of ZrO 2 and adding La 2 O 3 .…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to being 2.5 documented in the 2001 PA, a journal article was published (McGrail et al, 2000b) to document the results of the experiments conducted on LAWABP1 and the Subsurface Transport Over Reactive Multiphases (STORM) simulations used to forecast radionuclide release from the engineered portion of the disposal facility. The STORM computer code development was sponsored by the DOE and the TWRS program from 1998 through 2001 to support the base and sensitivity cases in the 2001 PA (Mann et al, 2001;McGrail et al, 2000a). The STORM computer code is a simulator that was developed by coupling Subsurface Transport Over Multiple Phases (STOMP), a non-isothermal multiphase flow simulator (White et al, 1996;White et al, 2006), with AREST-CT Version 1.1, a reactive transport and porous medium alteration simulator (Chen et al, 1995;Chen et al, 1996).…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Strategy to Conduct an Analysis of the Long-Term Performance of Low-Activity Waste Glass in a Shallow Subsurface Disposal System at Hanford

Neeway¹,

Pierce²,

Freedman³

et al. 2014

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Executive SummaryApproximately 56 million gallons of high-level radioactive mixed waste has accumulated in 177 buried single-and double-shell tanks at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State as a result of the past production of nuclear materials for the U.S. strategic defense arsenal. The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is proceeding with plans to permanently dispose of this waste. Plans call for separating the tank waste into high-level waste (HLW) and low-activity waste (LAW) fractions, which will be vitrified at the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). Between 150,000 and 345,000 m 3 of immobilized LAW (ILAW) glass are expected to be produced at Hanford. Principal radionuclides of concern in LAW are 99 Tc, 129 I, and U, while non-radioactive contaminants of concern are Cr and nitrate/nitrite (Mann et al., 2001;Mann et al., 2003). Between 9,000 and 20,000 m 3 of HLW glass will be sent off site to an undetermined federal facility for deep geological disposal, while the much larger volume of ILAW will be placed in the on-site, near-surface Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF).Before the ILAW can be disposed of at the IDF, a performance assessment (PA) must be conducted. The PA is a document that describes the long-term impacts of the disposal facility on public health and environmental resources. One of the major inputs to the PA is the estimate of radionuclide release rates from the engineered portion of the disposal facility into the surrounding environment. These estimates are expected to be based on chemical reactions that occur in the near-field, and to a certain extent, are controlled by the dissolution of the vitrified waste form. Once released from the vitrified matrix, the transport of the radionuclides of concern is based on chemical reactions that occur in the near-and farfield. Therefore, to provide credible estimates, a mechanistic understanding of the physical and geochemical processes that control glass dissolution, and thus radionuclide release, must be understood and incorporated into models used to predict radiation dose over the period of regulatory concern (~ 10,000 years). A cornerstone assumption for the approach to estimating the source term is that the glass matrix must dissolve for radionuclides to be released into the environment. This assumption has been demonstrated in pressurized unsaturated flow (PUF) experiments conducted with ILAW glass produced with actual radioactive low-activity waste (Pierce et al., 2006). The major parameters known to control glass dissolution are glass composition, temperature, and solution composition of the fluid contacting the glass (including pH and concentration of key ions [e.g., H 4 SiO 4 ]). The effect of these parameters on the glass dissolution rate is essential for developing credible PA models. Though the temperature of the IDF is expected to be roughly constant at 15 °C, the pH and fluid compositions are affected by flow rate (i.e., water infiltration), reactions with near-field engineered materials, gas-...

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Section: Historical Synopsis Of Ilaw Glass Performance Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Historical Synopsis Of Ilaw Glass Performance Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

A Strategy to Conduct an Analysis of the Long-Term Performance of Low-Activity Waste Glass in a Shallow Subsurface Disposal System at Hanford

Neeway¹,

Pierce²,

Freedman³

et al. 2014

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Radionuclide Retention in Concrete Waste Forms

Mattigod¹,

Bovaird²,

Wellman³

et al. 2010

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SummaryAssessing long-term performance of Category 3 waste cement grouts for radionuclide encasement requires knowledge of the radionuclide-cement interactions and mechanisms of retention (i.e., sorption or precipitation); the mechanism of contaminant release; the significance of contaminant release pathways; how waste form performance is affected by the full range of environmental conditions within the disposal facility; the process of waste form aging under conditions that are representative of processes occurring in response to changing environmental conditions within the disposal facility; the effect of waste form aging on chemical, physical, and radiological properties; and the associated impact on contaminant release. This knowledge will enable accurate prediction of radionuclide fate when the waste forms come in contact with groundwater. The information presented in the report provides data that 1) quantify radionuclide retention within concrete waste form materials similar to those used to encapsulate waste in the Low-Level Waste Burial Grounds (LLBG); 2) measure the effect of concrete waste form properties likely to influence radionuclide migration; and 3) quantify the stability of uranium-bearing solid phases of limited solubility in concrete.v

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Integrated Disposal Facility FY2010 Glass Testing Summary Report

Pierce¹,

Bacon²,

Kerisit³

et al. 2010

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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory was contracted by Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC to provide the technical basis for estimating radionuclide release from the engineered portion of the disposal facility (e.g., source term). Vitrifying the low-activity waste at Hanford is expected to generate over 1.6 × 10 5 m 3 of glass (Puigh 1999). The volume of immobilized low-activity waste (ILAW) at Hanford is the largest in the DOE complex and is one of the largest inventories (approximately 0.89 × 10 18 Bq total activity) of long-lived radionuclides, principally 99 Tc (t 1/2 = 2.1 × 10 5), planned for disposal in a low-level waste (LLW) facility. Before the ILAW can be disposed, DOE must conduct a performance assessement (PA) for the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF) that describes the long-term impacts of the disposal facility on public health and environmental resources. As part of the ILAW glass testing program PNNL is implementing a strategy, consisting of experimentation and modeling, in order to provide the technical basis for estimating radionuclide release from the glass waste form in support of future IDF PAs. The purpose of this report is to summarize the progress made in fiscal year (FY) 2010 toward implementing the strategy with the goal of developing an understanding of the long-term corrosion behavior of low-activity waste glasses. The emphasis in FY2010 was the completing an evaluation of the most sensitive kinetic rate law parameters used to predict glass weathering, documented in Bacon and Pierce (2010), and transitioning from the use of the Subsurface Transport Over Reactive Multi-phases to Subsurface Transport Over Multiple Phases computer code for near-field calculations. The FY2010 activities also consisted of developing a Monte Carlo and Geochemical Modeling framework that links glass composition to alteration phase formation by 1) determining the structure of unreacted and reacted glasses for use as input information into Monte Carlo calculations, 2) compiling the solution data and alteration phases identified from accelerated weathering tests conducted with ILAW glass by PNNL and Viteous State Laboratory/Catholic University of America as well as other literature sources for use in geochemical modeling calculations, and 3) conducting several initial calculations on glasses that contain the four major components of ILAW

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A Strategy to Conduct an Analysis of the Long-Term Performance of Low-Activity Waste Glass in a Shallow Subsurface Disposal System at Hanford

Cited by 17 publications

References 39 publications

A Strategy to Conduct an Analysis of the Long-Term Performance of Low-Activity Waste Glass in a Shallow Subsurface Disposal System at Hanford

A Strategy to Conduct an Analysis of the Long-Term Performance of Low-Activity Waste Glass in a Shallow Subsurface Disposal System at Hanford

Radionuclide Retention in Concrete Waste Forms

Integrated Disposal Facility FY2010 Glass Testing Summary Report

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