Gallons Of Radioactive Waste Research Articles

Challenges with vitrification of Hanford High-Level Waste (HLW) to borosilicate glass – An overview

The Hanford site in Washington State houses ~56 million gallons of radioactive wastes stored in 177 underground tanks. The waste must be immobilized and permanently stored, and the plan is to separate the tank wastes into low activity waste (LAW) and high-level waste (HLW) streams. The U.S. Department of Energy is building a Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at Hanford site to separately vitrify these two waste streams in borosilicate glass using Joule-heated ceramic melters (JHCM). Although the process of nuclear waste vitrification seems to be well established, in practicality, it is faced with complex problems starting from the design of glass compositions, to processing in melters and long-term performance of the final vitrified waste forms. The article presents an overview of our current understanding of critical challenges related to the development and performance of HLW glasses.

The Performance of Underground Radioactive Waste Storage Tanks at the Savannah River Site: A 60-Year Historical Perspective

The Savannah River Site produced weapons-grade materials for nearly 35 years between 1953 and 1988. The legacy of this production is nearly 37 million gallons of radioactive waste. Since the 1950s, the liquid waste has been stored in large, underground carbon steel waste tanks. During the past 20 years, the site has begun to process the waste so that it may be stored in vitrified and grout forms, which are more suitable for long-term storage. Over the history of the site, some tanks have experienced leakage of the waste to the secondary containment. This article is a review of the instances of leakage and corrosion degradation that the tanks and associated equipment have experienced since the first tanks were built. Furthermore, the activities that the site has taken to mitigate the degradation and manage the service life of the tank for its anticipated lifetime are reviewed.

Research Spotlight: Potential pathways of radioactive contaminants to surface waters

From the 1940s to the end of the Cold War, the U.S. Department of Energy maintained production facilities for manufacturing nuclear weapons along the Columbia River north of Richland, Wash. Known as the Hanford Site, the Rhode Island–sized area contains more than 53 million gallons of radioactive waste and is the location of a massive environmental cleanup. Of particular concern is that when the facility was active, fluids containing 33–59 tons of uranium were discharged into the shallow subsurface aquifer underneath Hanford. Studies suggest that this pollution is pervasively moving with the groundwater in the direction of the Columbia River. (Water Resources Research, doi:10.1029/2010WR009110, 2010)

HAZARDOUS WASTE: GAO Grades Hanford Cleanup

HAZARDOUS WASTE: GAO Grades Hanford Cleanup

Review: The Hanford Reach: A Land of Contrasts by Susan Zwinger and Stamford D. Smith

Review: The Hanford Reach: A Land of Contrasts By Susan Zwinger and Stamford D. Smith Reviewed by Adam M. Sowards University of Idaho, USA Susan Zwinger, Stamford D. Smith, and Skip Smith (Photographer).The Hanford Reach: A Land of Contrasts. Desert Places series. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2004. 79 pp. ISBN 0-8165-2376-2 (paper). US$13.95. Through words and black-and-white images, writer Susan Zwinger and photographer Skip Smith skillfully capture this unique area in south-central Washington State. The book conforms to the format of the University of Arizona Press' Desert Places series, edited by Gregory McNamee, and is a welcome addition. Simply put, The Hanford Reach: A Land of Contrasts is a beautiful book, depicting a landscape of irony through exquisite prose and stunning photographs (p. 5). Recently protected as a national monument, the Hanford Reach is the last remaining free-flowing stretch on the Northwest's Columbia River. It also happens to run adjacent to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation where scientists processed the plutonium for the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Over the years, Hanford produced and continues to store millions of gallons of radioactive waste, and during the infamous Green Run in 1949, the reservation released eight thousand curies of Iodine -131 over two days secretly causing a contamination far greater than the better known Three-Mile Island incident. Juxtaposed in the Reach now are rare and endangered species, amazing geological features, and some of the most wild desert spaces in the American West. The blending of these profane and sacred spaces makes the Hanford Reach a peculiar place, but one that can teach us about our society's relationship to nature. If the place itself is curious, this small book is unusually rich. Smith's photographs are haunting while showing spare geographies, geological features, fragile flora, and human artifacts. The photos perfectly complement Zwinger's economical and evocative writing. She blurs genres, effectively moving between roles as naturalist, historian, and traveler. Because of Zwinger's versatility, readers will learn about Roza

NEW LAB FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

For the past 30 years, Richland, Wash., has had but two landmarks: the infamous Hanford site, where hundreds of thousands of gallons of radioactive wastes still await cleanup; and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a government research lab with an environmental bent. Now the list has grown to three. PNNL has just spawned an offspring: the William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a bright, shiny research center devoted entirely to environmental problem solving. The primary mission of EMSL—which is managed by PNNL for the Department of Energy—is to produce the science needed for clean up of the environmental waste created by DOE's 50-year legacy of nuclear weapons research and production, a mammoth project some estimate will cost upward of $1 trillion. As a national user facility, EMSL hopes to lure the best and brightest scientists in the field with its cutting-edge scientific equipment—some of it the biggest and most sophisticated in the ...