NSEN 619 Treatment of HLW

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NSEN 619 Treatment of HLW

• G. A. Beitel and Vince Maio
• Time 100 to 330 pm Friday
• Information posted on http//www.if.uidaho/beitge
  or/ under HLW
• Notes will placed on the Web (follow Class Notes
  HLW - Treatment) usually the day before class
• Contact Dr. Beitel at vegus_at_cableone.net,
  526-0042 (8-6), 522-9849
• Contact Mr. Maio at Jvmaio_at_cs.com, or
  vmaio_at_inel.gov 526-3696, or 520-2511

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Resource Materials

• Text Engineering for Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing,
  by Justin T. Long, American Nuclear Society
  1978,  ISBN 0-89448-012X
• Have used
• Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management,
  Materials Research Society (Volume 333)
  (Conference Proceedings on High Level Waste not
  required, too hard to obtain
• Management Alternative HLW Treatments at INEEL,
  National Academy Press, 1999. Available to read
  free at NAP
• IDB free from Net
• Chart of the Nuclides Required, Recommended
  text.
• 10 CFR 60, 10 CFR 63- Free from Net
• Cs-Sr Separation at Hanford Will be provided
• Handouts and articles
• Manson, Pigford, and Levi recommended Alternative
  to Long excellent resource (100), but out of
  print.

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Course details

• Topics On Home Page http//www.if.uidaho.edu/bei
  tgeor/
• Then select Programs HLW
• Then Grading On Home page
• Then Lectures

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Internet document sites

• Lots of documents, free for downloading
• We will share useful sites
• http//www2.em.doe.gov/idb97/
• Also see http//enterprise.eh.doe.gov/
• Use Internet Explorer Netscape wont load menu
• http//www2.em.doe.gov/waps/index.html
• See Links on my Home Page Lots of DOE
  material and Codes and Standards are available
  from Tech library from an INEEL computer that is
  not available from home.
• Unfortunately, 9/11 caused many sites to take
  some of the better material off. Much is coming
  back.

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Why HLW, not TRU?

• We will learn the difference.
• Originally the course was Treatment of
  Radioactive Waste.
• Split was made to cover Incineration and Cement
  in LLW and Separations and Glass in HLW.
• The Nuclear industry is in doldrums because of
  inability to treat and dispose of HLW TRU is a
  DOE problem. The course title dominates. INEEL
  is attempting to reclassify last of liquid HLW as
  TRU. These are political issues, not academic or
  technical.
• This is very terse. You will be expected to have
  a good command of this distinction.

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Review of Nuclear PhysicsSimilar to LLW Waste
Class

• Binding Energy
• Fission Yield
• FP Decay
• Long Term Decay

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Typical LWR Commercial Fuel Bundle. Probably a
14x14 in array weighing around 1000 lbs
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Nuclear Waste - Regulations

• 10 CFR 20 10 CFR 60 10 CFR 61 10 CFR 63, and
  40 CFR 191
• These regulations tell what and how well to
  dispose of.
• These regulations do not tell how to treat, but
  define the requirements for disposal.
• We treat to meet the requirements for disposal.

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Waste Management Regulations

• 10 CFR 20.2001 through 2005 in essence defines
  radioactive
• waste by what you can do with Radioactive
  Material
• You can
• Keep
• Transfer
• Decay
• Vent - if less than Table 2 of Appendix B
• Flush - if less than Table 3 of Appendix B
• Incinerate
• Environmentally Safe 40 CRF 190
• Dispose of per 10 CFR 60, or
• Dispose of per 10 CFR 61
• All are required for HLW treatment
• In DOE, we must also include WIPP WAC

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Alternatives Requiring Treatment
Vent
Incinerate

• Operation
• Use
• Process
• Store

Radioactive Material
Transfer
Treat
Dispose of
Flush
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10 CFR 20 Appendix B

• Use for effluents and airborne contaminants in
  occupational areas
• Note only low concentrations (10E-8 to 10E-7
• allowable)
• Appreciate that it is Safety Based
• Human Safety takes precedence over Table values
• With HLW, 10 CFR 20 is primarily applicable to
• the effluent streams.

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Waste Disposal Regulations

• 10 CFR 60
• High Level Waste the scope of this class
• To the extent that TRU requires the same
  treatment, or is destined for a similar
  repository, or is a fraction of HLW, it will also
  be included.
• 10 CFR 63
• Governs the disposal of HLW at Yucca Mtn.
•  10 CFR 61
• Low Level Radioactive Waste NSE 618
• Also not included in class are UMTRAP, FUSRAP,
  and NARM

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10 CFR 61 General Requirements

• License based on human health and safety (10
  CFR 61.23)
• Performance Objectives (10 CFR 61.41-44)
• 25 mRem whole body dose or individual organ
• 75 mRem thyroid
• Protect inadvertent intruder (waste form)
• Long term site stability after closure
• (waste form, no voids)
• Control Based on Waste Classes A, B, C
• If Greater Than Class C one should technically
• go to 10 CFR 60, However, this is actually a
• politically sensitive issue)

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10CFR 61.56 - General Waste Characteristics

• No cardboard containers
• No free liquid (lt 1)
• No explosives
• No toxic or pressurized (1.5 atm) gas
• No pyrophorics
• Minimum hazardous, pathogenic and infectious

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10 CFR 61.56 - Specific Characteristics (allocable
to waste or container)

• Stability against slumping, collapse, or
  failure
• of the unit
• Stability against moisture, microbes, radiation
• lt1 liquid in container or lt0.5 in stable
  waste
• Minimum void volume (not specified in
  regulation, but it is generally accepted to be
  lt15 vol void

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High Level Waste

• 10 CFR 60
• Includes Spent Fuel, first cycle raffinate
  (liquid from the first cycle solvent extraction,)
  and solids derived from first cycle raffinate
• We include Transuranic Wastes in this course
• First cycle raffinate derived from fuel
  reprocessing
• We will address 10 CFR 63 later

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Fuel Reprocessing

• Dissolve clad fuel, (dissolve fuel and cladding
  or declad and dissolve fuel only)
• Extract U, Pu, or both, or FP only
• Fuel is measured in terms of MTHM or MTIHM
• Specifically, MWd/MTIHM (burn-up)
• We will learn to have a sense of concentrations
  of FP and TRU elements

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MWD/MTIHM

• Megawatt-days/metric ton irradiated heavy metal

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MWD/MHIHM

• Key measure in Spent fuel and HLW
• MWD is energy
• Energy is E mc2
• m can be computed as tons/ton burnup
• Since m appears as fission products, MWD/MTHM is
  a direct measure of
• activity
• reactivity

True, but the mass, m, is the difference in the
mass of the fissionable material (U-235), and the
masses of the fission products and neutrons and
protons ejected. That mass difference is easier
thought of in terms of binding energy.
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Primary Program

• Yucca Mountain HLW Repository Wannabe
• Initial Search goes back to 1957
• First approach was Salt Lyons Kansas then
  side-tracked to WIPP
• Nevada always a prime candidate
• Waste Policy Act of 1981 established a 3-way
  search
• Only Nevada Survives

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Yucca Mountain Status

• See http//www.ymp.gov/

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Pu Concentrations of Fuel

• Depends on reactor
• Commercial Reactors use 3.5 to 5 U-235 enriched
  fuel (50 kg/ton)
• If you remove the fuel at 1, then Pu may be
  around 2-3 (20 30 kg/ton)
• If you extract 99.5 of the Pu, you have 0.5 (of
  the 2-3 produced) left in the waste (10 15
  g/ton)
• But ton of heavy metal to compare against the
  waste the solids in the HLW from a ton of fuel
  consist principally of the fission products (20
  40 kg) plus some chemicals, lets suppose
  another 20 kg.
• So the concentration of Pu is now 10 g in the 60
  kg of HLW solids or about 200 ppm
• 0.02 200 ppm -- TRU lower limit 2 ppm
• Typically gt100 times the TRU limit.

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The Problem

• Transuranics (Np, Pu, Am, Cm) and Actinides (Ac,
  Th, Pa, U plus TRU)
• Long-lived beta/gamma emitters
• Ultimately dominated by Actinides Am(241 and
  243), Pu(239 and 240), and Np-237
• and, Fission and Activation products I-129,
  Tc-99, C-14, Nb-94

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The Problem, cont.

• First 1000 years, HLW has both high Radiation and
  Thermal
• Radiation is high enough to cause material
  damage dislocations, embrittlement, stored
  energy, degradation of polymers, radiolysis
• Thermal implies there is enough heat to raise
  temperatures to 700 - 800 C
• After 1000 yr, HLW equivalent to TRU

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The Solution

• Deep Geologic Disposal (see 10 CFR 60)
• 10,000 -100,000 year confinement
• Allocate first 1000 years to Waste Container
• Next 10,000 years to Waste Form
• Next 100,000 years to Geologic Media
• 10 CFR 63 changed this to less than one chance in
  10,000 over 10,000 years that Performance Goals
  will be exceeded

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Geologically Stable Materials
Formations seriously considered for repositories
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Stable Man-Made Materials

• Glass
• Bricks
• Hydraulic Cements

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10 CFR 63

• See file Named Key Items in 10 CFR 63 (also read
  10 CFR 63)
• 10 CFR 63 is Yucca Mtn specific
• It allocates everything to the license which
  allocates containment assurance to design and the
  performance assessment
• Does not place requirements on the waste form
• Waste form requirements contained in the Waste
  Acceptance Criteria Document

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Homework

• See Homework file