February 1, 2008
Conference Paper

Pretreatment Engineering Platform--Reducing Technical Risks for the Waste Treatment Plant Pretreatment Facility through Scaled Process Testing

Abstract

The Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) will separate and vitrify (immobilize in glass) millions of gallons of radioactive and chemical wastes stored at the Hanford Site. Pretreatment of the waste by caustic and oxidative leaching processes will minimize the volume of high-level waste (HLW) to be vitrified, and cross-flow ultrafiltration will be used to remove liquids from the HLW solid slurry. An extensive and critical review of the WTP technical bases and design identified the need to demonstrate of the integrated leaching and ultrafiltration processes at greater than bench scale. To respond to this need, the WTP prime contractor, Bechtel National, Inc., and their principle subcontractor Washington Group International concluded a 1/4.5 scale facility to treat non-radioactive waste simulants was needed to demonstrate the process. This paper describes the technical bases and design of the scaled Pretreatment Engineering Platform (PEP) and the strategy to develop waste simulants to be used in the PEP

Revised: August 10, 2009 | Published: February 1, 2008

Citation

Musick C.A., S.M. Barnes, J.L. Huckaby, G.B. Josephson, and R.A. Gilbert. 2008. Pretreatment Engineering Platform--Reducing Technical Risks for the Waste Treatment Plant Pretreatment Facility through Scaled Process Testing. In Waste Management Symposium 2008: Phoenix Rising - Moving Forward in Waste Management, February 24-28, 2008, Phoenix, Arizona., Paper No. 8365. Tucson, Arizona:WM Symposia. PNNL-SA-59048.