The world's largest radioactive waste melting furnace has reached its expected operating temperature of 1,150 degrees Celsius in its second test run.
Workers at Hanford stand near the first melting chamber. Photo: Yahoo
The first melter, which will be used to treat waste at the vitrification plant at the Hanford nuclear complex in eastern Washington, is expected to maintain that temperature for several days. After that, frosted glass will be added as the next step in testing the melter. Completing the first melter is a critical step toward treating waste at Hanford, according to Ed Dawson, a spokesman for the US Department of Energy, Yahoo reported on July 25.
The melter will run continuously for five years. Construction on the vitrification plant began 21 years ago. The plant is scheduled to begin processing the least radioactive waste in an underground storage pool at Hanford in late 2024 or 2025, turning it into a stable glass form for disposal.
Underground pools at Hanford hold 212 million liters of radioactive and toxic chemical waste from the production of nearly two-thirds of the plutonium used in the U.S. nuclear weapons program during World War II and the Cold War. Bechtel National, the contractor that built and delivered the vitrification plant to the U.S. Department of Energy, attempted to heat up the plant’s first 300-ton melting furnace on Oct. 8, 2022.
However, the heating process was forced to stop after midnight on October 10, 2022, with the temperature just below 150 degrees Celsius due to a problem with the power supply to the furnace's starting heating equipment. Engineers had to review the entire system to understand the cause of the problem, thoroughly inspect every piece of equipment in the melting furnace, and redesign some areas. They also purchased, tested, and installed some new equipment. The second test began, and the melting furnace reached a temperature of 1,150 degrees Celsius on the afternoon of July 20.
After the frosted glass is added to the melting furnace, a second set of heaters will be turned on, replacing the starter heater. They will send an electric current through the glass melting tank. Then, an aerator will be installed, which will blow air into the bottom of the furnace’s glass tank, preventing hot spots from forming. The melting furnace is 20 feet by 30 feet and 15 feet high, five times larger than the one currently operating at the DOE’s Savannah River Defense Waste Facility in South Carolina.
The heating test will prepare for the next step in the decommissioning process, which will test the melter, which uses non-radioactive materials to simulate waste. The federal court has given DOE a deadline of 2033 to begin vitrifying the highly radioactive waste.
An Khang (According to Yahoo )
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