SRNS-L4600-2012-00142 REVISION 0 H CANYON PROCESSING IN CORRELATION WITH F/H ANALYTICAL LABS Emily Weinheimer SUMMER 2012 Savannah River National Laboratory Savannah River Nuclear Solutions Aiken, SC 29808 Prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy Under Contract Number DE-AC09-08SR22470 SRNS-L4600-2012-00142 REVISION 0 DISCLAIMER This work was prepared under an agreement with and funded by the U.S. Government. Neither the U. S. Government or its employees, nor any of its contractors, subcontractors or their employees, makes any express or implied: 1. warranty or assumes any legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or for the use or results of such use of any information, product, or process disclosed; or 2. representation that such use or results of such use would not infringe privately owned rights; or 3. endorsement or recommendation of any specifically identified commercial product, process, or service. Any views and opinions of authors expressed in this work do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government, or its contractors, or subcontractors. Printed in the United States of America Prepared for U.S. Department of Energy SRNS-L4600-2012-00142 REVISION 0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Management of radioactive chemical waste can be a complicated business. H Canyon and F/H Analytical Labs are two facilities present at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, SC that are at the forefront. In fact H Canyon is the only large-scale radiochemical processing facility in the United States and this processing is only enhanced by the aid given from F/H Analytical Labs. As H Canyon processes incoming materials, F/H Labs provide support through a variety of chemical analyses. Necessary checks of the chemical makeup, processing, and accountability of the samples taken from H Canyon process tanks are performed at the labs along with further checks on waste leaving the canyon after processing. Used nuclear material taken in by the canyon is actually not waste. Only a small portion of the radioactive material itself is actually consumed in nuclear reactors. As a result various radioactive elements such as Uranium, Plutonium and Neptunium are commonly found in waste and may be useful to recover. Specific processing is needed to allow for separation of these products from the waste. This is H Canyon’s specialty. Furthermore, H Canyon has the capacity to initiate the process for weapons-grade nuclear material to be converted into nuclear fuel. This is one of the main campaigns being set up for the fall of 2012. Once usable material is separated and purified of impurities such as fission products, it can be converted to an oxide and ultimately turned into commercial fuel. The processing of weapons-grade material for commercial fuel is important in the necessary disposition of plutonium. Another processing campaign to start in the fall in H Canyon involves the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel for disposal in improved containment units. The importance of this campaign involves the proper disposal of nuclear waste in order to ensure the safety and well-being of future generations and the environment. As processing proceeds in the fall, H Canyon will have a substantial number of samples being sent to F/H Labs. All analyses of these samples are imperative to safe and efficient processing. The important campaigns to occur would be impossible without feedback from analyses such as chemical makeup of solutions, concentrations of dissolution acids and nuclear material, as well as nuclear isotopic data. The necessity of analysis for radiochemical processing is evident. Processing devoid of F/H Lab’s feedback would go against the ideals of a safety-conscious and highly accomplished processing facility such as H Canyon. - iii - SRNS-L4600-2012-00142 REVISION 0 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ v LIST OF ACRONYMS .......................................................................................................... v 1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND..................................................................... 1 1.1 MISSIONS...................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 H CANYON SETUP...................................................................................................... 2 2.0 DISCUSSION.................................................................................................................... 2 2.1 H CANYON PROCESSING......................................................................................... 2 2.1.1 PUREX ..................................................................................................................... 2 2.1.2 SRE. .......................................................................................................................... 4 2.1.3 AFS-2........................................................................................................................ 4 2.2 LAB ANALYSIS............................................................................................................ 4 2.2.1 Chemical Makeup Analysis...................................................................................... 5 2.2.2 Accountability Analysis............................................................................................ 5 2.2.3 Processing Analysis.................................................................................................. 6 2.2.4 Waste Analysis.......................................................................................................... 6 3.0 SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................... 6 4.0 ASPECT OF INTERNSHIP ............................................................................................ 7 4.1 PROJECT OBJECTIVE. ............................................................................................. 7 4.2 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING CLASSES .................................................................. 7 4.3 BROADER IMPACT.................................................................................................... 7 4.3.1 Society Impacts......................................................................................................... 7 4.3.2 Contemporary Issues................................................................................................ 8 4.3.3 Ethics ........................................................................................................................ 8 4.3.4 Safety......................................................................................................................... 9 5.0 REFERENCES................................................................................................................ 10 6.0 ACKNOLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... 10 - iv - SRNS-L4600-2012-00142 REVISION 0 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. H Canyon Modified PUREX Process Flow Diagram………………………….…3 LIST OF ACRONYMS AFS-2 Alternate Feed Stream 2 BBS Behavior-Based Safety CE Chemical Engineering DHEC Department of Health and Environmental Control DOE Department of Energy DWPF Defense Waste Processing Facility HBL HB-Line HEU Highly Enriched Uranium >20% ICP-AES Inductively Coupled Plasma – Atomic Emission Spectroscopy ICP-MS Inductively Coupled Plasma - Mass Spectroscopy IDMS Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry ISE Ion Selectivity Electrode KPA Kinetic Phosphorescence Analyzer LEU Low Enriched Uranium <20% MFFF Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility MOX Mixed Oxide Facility NASA National Aeronautics and Science Administration PPE Personal Protective Equipment Pu Plutonium PUREX Plutonium and Uranium Extraction SRE Sodium Reactor Experiment SRNL Savannah River National Lab SRS Savannah River Site TBP Tributyl Phosphate TIMS Thermal Ionization Mass Spectroscopy U Uranium UNF Used Nuclear Fuel WAC Waste Acceptance Criteria - v - SRNS-L4600-2012-00142 REVISION 0 1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Environmental Stewardship, Clean Energy, National Security. These are the three ideals that Savannah River National Labs (SRNL), as well as Enterprise SRS, works toward on a daily basis as demonstrated by the ever lengthening list of accomplishments made by the labs. In correspondence with the labs, Savannah River Site (SRS) is one of the few places in the US where chemical nuclear engineering is really a focal point and has been since its construction. The ability to stabilize nuclear materials such as uranium, plutonium and neptunium on such a large scale solely belongs to H Canyon as a one of a kind processing facility on the site. The peak of its use was during the cold war; however, new missions have given SRS a reason to again use the Canyon’s unique capabilities. H Canyon is supported by F/H Analytical Labs which keeps H Canyon processing in check. Without F/H Labs, H Canyon would be without its most fundamental resource. 1.1 MISSIONS Construction of the site and particularly H Canyon first began in the 1950s as the US government turned its attention to the cold war. The massive concrete building, resembling a canyon, started operations in 1955. The main ability of H Canyon is to recover uranium, plutonium and neptunium from enriched uranium fuel rods encased in aluminum. Throughout the cold war, H Canyon operated recovering materials from used