Physical Property and Rheological Testing of Actual Transuranic Waste from Hanford Single-Shell Tanks

Abstract

(PNNL) to measure the composites' physical properties. These tank composites were prepared from core samples retrieved from these tanks. These composites may not be representative of the entire contents of the tank, but they provide some indication of the properties of the waste in these underground storage tanks. Dilutions in water were also prepared from these composite samples. The measurements included paint filter tests, viscosity, direct measurement of shear strength with a rheometer, settling and centrifuging behavior, a qualitative test of stickiness, total solids concentration, sludge and supernatant liquor densities, pH, and extrusion tests to estimate shear strength. Three water dilutions were prepared from each of these homogenized samples (see Section 3.0 and Table 3.3). The first dilution was prepared to have a water concentration resulting in approximately 30 wt% solids. The second dilution is a 1:1 dilution, and the third dilution is a 4:1 (water: sludge by mass) dilution. All of these dilutions were prepared with distilled water. Another dilution (DL1) was prepared for Tank T-110 to be more representative of the actual concentration when the sample was initially taken. Water was added to the Tank T-110 sample to form a sludge that would just meet the paint filter test. The solids content of this dilution was approximately 54 wt% solids. Solids content of all of the samples were measured by heating each sample in a drying oven at 105°C. The total solids concentration of the homogenized samples also was measured by thermogravimetric analysis. At 165°C, the measured wt% solids of the as-received Tank T-110 composite sample was approximately 70 wt%. This is significantly higher than is reported in the data report for this core sample; therefore, it is assumed that samples from this tank lost substantial amounts of water prior to the composite being prepared. The wt% solids of the other composite samples (32 wt% for T-204, 41 wt% for B-203, and 34 wt% for T-203 as measured by oven drying) are similar to the data reported on the original core samples. No clarified liquid was observed on any of the homogenized, as-received samples after a week of gravity settling. After centrifugation at 1000 × g (~2300±100 rpm with a radius of 16.2 cm) for 15 minutes, the homogenized, as-received sample from Tank T-110 still had no separate liquid phase, but the samples from Tanks T-204, B-203, and T-203 had a small amount of clarified liquid (≈ 10 vol%) after centrifugation. The bulk density for these homogenized samples was 1.32 g/mL for T-110, B-203, and T-203 and 1.48 g/mL for T-204. The 1:1 and 4:1 dilutions for all of the samples gravity settled to form clarified supernatant liquor. The 30 wt% solids dilutions did not form clarified supernatant during gravity settling for one week with the exception of the 30 wt% solids dilution from Tank T-110. No clarified supernatant was observed for the initial dilution (54 wt% solids) for Tank T-110, but clarified supernatant was observed after centrifugation of this dilutio...

Hanford Waste Physical and Rheological Properties: Data and Gaps

“…The core composites for these tanks were composed of re-hydrated samples from storage . The typical total fractional water content in the as-received samples used to make the composites of Tingey et al (2003) was approximately 0.80 by mass (Rassat et al 2003). To achieve the lowest UDS mass concentration reported in Poloski et al (2006) for the undiluted composite with this water content, T-204 at 0.17 (Figure 3.80), the concentration of water in the liquid must be approximately 0.95 by mass.…”

“…Hanford waste shear-strength and UDS-concentration data for core composites and dilutions thereof (see Tingey et al 2003) There may be discrepancy in the measured composite UDS concentration and that estimated for in situ conditions for these B-203, T-204, and T-203 measurements. The core composites for these tanks were composed of re-hydrated samples from storage .…”

Assessment of Jet Erosion for Potential Post-Retrieval K-Basin Settled Sludge

“…The model assumed (e.g., Bingham and Casson) for the data to extrapolate to zero strain rate can also affect the results (Nguyen and Boger 1992;Chhabra 1992). The data presented in Tingey et al (2003) demonstrate for those Hanford wastes they considered that the waste has overshoot behavior, resulting in under-prediction of the yield point if the traditional models are applied.…”

“…As noted in Tingey et al (2003), the extrusion scale may be expected to affect the results. The current range of applicability of the methodologies is also limited to 3.3 shear strengths on the order of 10,000 Pa (maximum simulant shear strength employed by Gauglitz and Aiken [1997] was 6,500 Pa).…”

Hanford Sludge Simulant Selection for Soil Mechanics Property Measurement

“…Gauglitz et al (2009) reported comparisons for Hanford sludge waste. The ratio of shear strength to Bingham yield stress for diluted B-203 and T-203 waste is 5 and 8, respectively (Tingey et al 2003). A ratio approaching 1000 may be determined from core-sample analyses of AZ-101 waste (Urie et al 2002).…”