Corrosion studies of carbon steel under impinging jets of simulated slurries of neutralized current acid waste (NCAW) and neutralized cladding removal waste (NCRW)

Abstract

Plans for the disposal of radioactive liquid and solid wastes presently stored in double-shell tanks at the Hanford Site call for retrieval and processing of the waste to create forms suitable for permanent disposal. Waste will be retrieved from a tank using a submerged slurry pump in conjunction with one or more rotating slurry jet mixer pumps. Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) has conducted tests using simulated waste slurries to assess the effects of a impinging slurry jet on the corrosion rate of the tank wall and floor, an action that could potentially compromise the tank's structural integrity. Corrosion processes were investigated on a laboratory scale with a simulated neutralized cladding removal waste (NCRW) slurry and in a subsequent test with simulated neutralized current acid waste (NCAW) slurry. The test slurries simulated the actual NCRW and NCAW both chemically and physically. The tests simulated those conditions expected to exist in the respective double-shell tanks during waste retrieval operations. Results of both tests indicate that, because of the action of the mixer pump slurry jets, the waste retrieval operations proposed for NCAW and NCRW will moderately accelerate corrosion of the tank wall and floor. Based on the corrosion of initially unoxidized test specimens, and the removal of corrosion products from those specimens, the maximum time-averaged corrosion rates of carbon steel in both waste simulants for the length of the test was {approximately}4 mil/yr. The protective oxide layer that exists in each storage tank is expected to inhibit corrosion of the carbon steel.