POWER August 2018 - 40

RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
2. FBSR process flowchart. The waste reduction process includes several steps. The
process starts with spent resins from commercial nuclear power plants entering the system
and ends with a reformed residue ready for disposal. Courtesy: Studsvik Inc.
intrusion). Higher waste classifications increase
disposal costs and limit disposal options,
such as shallow land burial. By using
FBSR technology, results show a 6:1 average
volume reduction (VR) for ion-exchange resins,
with anion resin treatment yielding VR
as high as 30:1 while heavily fouled cation
resin treatment can be as low as 3:1. The VR
generally doesn't force entry into a higher,
more-restrictive and expensive waste classification,
such as from Class B to Class C.
From a chemical perspective, Foster
pointed to five factors that affect the maximum
achievable volume reduction. They are:
■ The inorganic content of the waste.
■ The amount of mineralizing additive required.
■
The ash content of the additives.
■ The amount of coal fines that collect with
the solid products.
waste matrix chemical morphology.
The filtered process gas from the high-temperature
filters is mixed with air upon entering
a direct-fired thermal oxidizer, converting all
residual carbon monoxide, volatile organics,
and traces of hydrogen into carbon dioxide
and water vapor. Hot gases from the thermal
oxidizer pass through a venturi and into a
scrubber containing a pH-controlled sodium
hydroxide solution. This system cools the hot
gases to about 80C almost instantaneously,
and the sodium hydroxide solution absorbs
and neutralizes acid gases. The salt solution is
pumped to a spray dryer where it is atomized,
dried, and collected for burial as LLRW.
The clean, moisture-laden process offgases
exit the scrubber, and excess moisture
is condensed for reuse as scrubber system
makeup water. The condenser acts as the process
heat sink, controlling the water balance in
the scrubber system. An electrical heater then
heats the off-gases to 120-140C to ensure that
the off-gas is dry and free of moisture prior
to entering the high-efficiency particulate air
(HEPA) filters. The gases co-mingle with the
building ventilation airflow prior to flowing
through the HEPA filter bank, a vent blower,
and being released through a monitored ventilation
stack. The high-level IER-FBSR process
flowsheet is shown in Figure 2.
Monitoring and Final Waste
Matrices
A continuous radiation monitoring system
measures and documents any trace radionuclides
that may pass through the stack. The
system includes alpha, beta, gamma, iodine,
carbon-14 (C-14), and tritium (H-3) samplers
and detectors. Testing has shown that
more than 99.99% of received radioactivity
is retained in the RR. Carbon-14 and tri40
tium-two
major concerns for shallow land
burial due to the potential for radionuclide
migration-are effectively removed from the
RR. If needed, C-14 and tritium capturing
systems can be utilized for the retention of
these radionuclides. Iron, nickel, cobalt, and
cesium are the primary radioactive RR constituents,
and proportioned according to the
makeup of the IER received.
The final waste matrices consist of metal
oxides, carbonate salts, or alkali-aluminosilicate
(NAS) minerals, depending on the
mineralizing additives and type of waste/
composition. Metal oxides form iron-based
spinels, that is, a class of minerals arranged
in a cubic, close-packed lattice, which are
water insoluble. Carbonate salts are mostly
soluble in water, while NAS minerals provide
high leach resistance. If an NAS final
waste form is desired, the aluminosilicate additive
must be used.
As a granular product, the FBSR NAS
mineral waste matrix has been shown to be
more durable than glass during testing originally
conducted using ASTM C-1285-02,
" Standard Test Methods for Determining
Chemical Durability of Nuclear, Hazardous,
and Mixed Waste Glasses and Multiphase
Glass Ceramics: The Product Consistency
Test (PCT), " and during subsequent performance
assessment modeling.
LLRW Volume Reduction Achieved
In the U.S., current LLRW disposal regulations
are based on long-lived and short-lived
radionuclide concentrations (curies/m3
■ And to a smaller extent, the carryover of
small, sized, fluidized-bed media, which
results from media attrition during operation.
Waste
streams with high solids loading or
high concentrations of inorganic materials
result in lower VRs.
The initial proof-of-process test program
concurrent with the qualification test program
was conducted in 1997 at the Hazen Research
Inc. facility in Golden, Colorado. Since then,
FBSR technology has been deployed in the
U.S., Japan, and France. Several field testing
demonstrations have been conducted, including
at the following locations:
■ Permanent installation for treating sodium-bearing
waste stored in underground
tanks at the Idaho National Laboratory,
Idaho Falls, Idaho.
■ Engineering scale demonstration (ESD)
for treating processed organic tank wastes,
producing a water-soluble, granular, carbonate-based
mineral product at the Savannah
River facility in Aiken, South Carolina.
■ ESD for treating various Hanford tank wastes
at the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington.
■ ESD for treating liquid nitrate waste and
solid organic material in Osaka, Japan.
■ Initial procurement for fabrication of a
permanent installation for treating lowlevel
radioactive liquid nitrate wastes in
Narbonne, France.
),
which ultimately determines the waste classification,
such as Class A, B, C, or Greater
than Class C. The waste form must meet
rigorous requirements to ensure stability after
disposal (protection against inadvertent
www.powermag.com
Through testing and demonstration, FBSR
technology has proven to be a very beneficial
radioactive waste volume reduction process. ■
-James M. Hylko (JHylko1@msn.
com) specializes in safety, quality, and
emergency management issues and is a
frequent contributor to POWER.
POWER | August 2018
http://www.powermag.com

POWER August 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER August 2018

Contents
POWER August 2018 - Cover1
POWER August 2018 - Cover2
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