The West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) has used a process to vitrify high-levelradioactive waste (HLW) in borosilicate glass since June 1996. This process is composed ofwaste mobilization and removal from two large, underground HLW storage tanks; transfer intothe Vitrification Facility; and processing the HLW with glass-former chemicals into a moltenborosilicate glass that is poured into stainless steel canisters. After 32 months of operation,approximately 88% of the Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 activity have been removed from theHLW tanks and successfully processed into glass-filled canisters. These operations haveremoved 1.3 million liters (L) of HLW slurry from the HLW tanks over the course of 102 wastetransfers. From these transfers, 58 melter feed batches have been prepared and over 230canisters of vitrified waste have been produced.Throughout waste mobilization and removal operations, improvements to the systems were madeto optimize waste removal. Equipment replacements within the HLW tanks and transfer systempresented unique maintenance, safety, radiological, and contamination-control opportunities inthe removal of very large, highly radioactive pumps while minimizing personnel radiation doses.In addition, waste mobilization and removal operations resulted in many “lessons learned” thatmay benefit others who are or will be performing similar operations.
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