The effect of HWVP feed nitrate and carbonate content on glass redox adjustment

The Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant (HWVP) is being designed for the Department of Energy to immobilize pretreated radioactive high-level waste (HLW) as glass for geological disposal. In the HWVP formic acid will be added to the pretreated HLW prior to vitrification. The formic acid is added to adjust the feed rheology and to provide a reductant which maintains the feed in the melter within an acceptable redox range. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of nitrate and carbonate concentrations in the pretreated neutralized current acid waste (NCAW) feed on the amount of formic acid required to obtain an acceptable glass redox state in the melter. The glass redox state was measured by the Fe{sup +2}/Fe{sup +3} ratio in the vitrified product