Waste form development for a DC arc furnace

Abstract

A laboratory crucible study was conducted to develop waste forms to treat nonradioactive simulated u8Pu heterogeneous debris waste fiom Savannah River, metal waste fiom the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), and nominal waste also fiom INEL using DC arc melting. The preliminary results showed that the different waste form compositions had vastly different responses for each processing effect. The reducing condition of DC arc melting had no significant effects on the durability of some waste forms while it decreased the waste form durability fiom 300 to 700% for other waste forms, which resulted in the failure of some TCLP tests. The right formulations of waste can benefit from devitrification and showed an increase in durability by 40%. Some formulations showed no devitrification effects while others decreased durability by 200%. Increased waste loading also affected waste form behavior, decreasing durability for one waste, increasing durability by 240% for another, and showing no effect for the third waste. All of these responses to the processing and composition variations were dictated by the fbndamental glass chemistry and can be adjusted to achieve maximal waste loading, acceptable durability, and desired processing characteristics if each waste formulation is designed for the result according to the glass chemistry.

Power Performance Analysis of Large Capacity DC Electric Arc Furnace

“…The arcfree switch is safely grounded while disconnecting the power supply of the DC electric arc furnace. The local electric furnace circuit breaker is no longer required, which reduces maintenance costs and increases the life cycle of the transformer [11].…”