Gas release during salt-well pumping: Model predictions and laboratory validation studies for soluble and insoluble gases

Abstract

The Hanford Site has 149 single-shell tanks (SSTs) containing radioactive wastes that are complex mixes of radioactive and chemical products. Of these, 67 are known or suspected to have leaked liquid from the tanks into the surrounding soil. Salt-well pumping, or interim stabilization, is a well-established operation for removing drainable interstitial liquid from SSTs. The overall objective of this ongoing study is to develop a quantitative understanding of the release rates and cumulative releases of flammable gases from SSTs as a result of salt-well pumping. The current study is an extension of the previous work reported by Peurrung et al. (1996). The first objective of this current study was to conduct laboratory experiments to quantify the release of soluble and insoluble gases. The second was to determine experimentally the role of characteristic waste heterogeneities on the gas release rates. The third objective was to evaluate and validate the computer model STOMP (Subsurface Transport over Multiple Phases) used by Peurrung et al. (1996) to predict the release of both soluble (typically ammonia) and insoluble gases (typically hydrogen) during and after salt-well pumping. The fourth and final objective of the current study was to predict the gas release behavior for a range of typical tank conditions and actual tank geometry. In these models, the authors seek to include all the pertinent salt-well pumping operational parameters and a realistic range of physical properties of the SST wastes. For predicting actual tank behavior, two-dimensional (2-D) simulations were performed with a representative 2-D tank geometry.