Abstract
Behaviour and fate of uranium in a high-level nuclear waste processing system
Highlights
Effective control and management of high-level nuclear waste (HLNW) during its hydrothermal processing is crucial to the US Department of Energy’s Savannah River tank farm operations
This paper presents strategic basic crystallization and U sorption studies carried out to establish the crystallo-chemical characteristics and fouling behaviour of U and sodium aluminosilicate (SAS) solid products in a HLNW simulant system, bridging the fundamental knowledge gap
Synthetic SiO2-free, sodium aluminate solutions were prepared from known masses of gibbsite (99.5% -Al(OH)3, Alcoa Arkansas, USA), sodium hydroxide (97.5% NaOH, 2.5% Na2CO3, Ajax Chemicals, Australia), anhydrous sodium carbonate (99.9% Na2CO3, Merck, Australia), and Milli-Q water to give a liquor of concentration 2.20–2.33 M Al(OH)3, 5.4–6.0 M NaOH, and 0.49 M Na2CO3
Summary
Sodium aluminosilicate (SAS) polytypes (e.g., amorphous, zeolite, sodalite, and cancrinite) and sodium diuranate waste products enriched in fissionable uranium (U) crystallize, invariably, leading to evaporator fouling and major criticality concern. Heterogeneous crystallization of sodium diuranate (Na2U2O7) occurs in tandem with sodium aluminosilicate phases within the evaporators used in the waste liquor concentration in the temperature range 30–140°C.
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