Aluminosilicate Formation in High Level Waste Evaporators: A Mechanism for Uranium Accumulation

High level waste Evaporators at the Savannah River Site (SRS) process radioactive waste to concentrate supernate and thus conserve tank space. In June of 1997, difficulty in evaporator operation was initially observed. This operational difficulty evidenced itself as a plugging of the evaporator's gravity drain line (GDL). The material blocking the GDL was determined to be a sodium aluminosilicate. Following a mechanical cleaning of the GDL, the evaporator was returned to service until October 1999. At this time massive deposits were discovered in the evaporator pot. As a result of the changes in evaporator chemistry and the resulting formation of aluminosilicate deposits in the evaporator, a comprehensive research and development program has been undertaken. This program is underway in order to assist in understanding the new evaporator chemistry and gain insight into the deposition phenomena. Key results from testing in FY01 have demonstrated that the chemistry of the evaporator feed favors aluminosilicate formation. Both the reaction kinetics and particle growth of the aluminosilicate material under SRS evaporator conditions has been demonstrated to occur within the residence times utilized in the SRS evaporator operation. Batch and continuous-flow experiments at known levels of supersaturation have shown a significant correlation between the deposition of aluminosilicates and mixing intensity in the vessel. Advances in thermodynamic modeling of the evaporator chemistry have been accomplished. The resulting thermodynamic model has been related to the operational history of the evaporator, is currently assisting in feed selection, and could potentially assist in expanding the operating envelopes technical baselines for evaporator operation