Secondary waste form testing : ceramicrete phosphate bonded ceramics.
The cleanup activities of the Hanford tank wastes require stabilization and solidification of the secondary waste streams generated from the processing of the tank wastes. The treatment of these tank wastes to produce glass waste forms will generate secondary wastes, including routine solid wastes and liquid process effluents. Liquid wastes may include process condensates and scrubber/off-gas treatment liquids from the thermal waste treatment. The current baseline for solidification of the secondary wastes is a cement-based waste form. However, alternative secondary waste forms are being considered. In this regard, Ceramicrete technology, developed at Argonne National Laboratory, is being explored as an option to solidify and stabilize the secondary wastes. The Ceramicrete process has been demonstrated on four secondary waste formulations: baseline, cluster 1, cluster 2, and mixed waste streams. Based on the recipes provided by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the four waste simulants were prepared in-house. Waste forms were fabricated with three filler materials: Class C fly ash, CaSiO{sub 3}, and Class C fly ash + slag. Optimum waste loadings were as high as 20 wt.% for the fly ash and CaSiO{sub 3}, and 15 wt.% for fly ash + slag filler. Waste forms for physical characterizations were fabricated with no additives, hazardous contaminants, and radionuclide surrogates. Physical property characterizations (density, compressive strength, and 90-day water immersion test) showed that the waste forms were stable and durable. Compressive strengths were >2,500 psi, and the strengths remained high after the 90-day water immersion test. Fly ash and CaSiO{sub 3} filler waste forms appeared to be superior to the waste forms with fly ash + slag as a filler. Waste form weight loss was {approx}5-14 wt.% over the 90-day immersion test. The majority of the weight loss occurred during the initial phase of the immersion test, indicative of washing off of residual unreacted binder components from the waste form surface. Waste forms for ANS 16.1 leach testing contained appropriate amounts of rhenium and iodine as radionuclide surrogates, along with the additives silver-loaded zeolite and tin chloride. The leachability index for Re was found to range from 7.9 to 9.0 for all the samples evaluated. Iodine was below detection limit (5 ppb) for all the leachate samples. Further, leaching of sodium was low, as indicated by the leachability index ranging from 7.6-10.4, indicative of chemical binding of the various chemical species. Target leachability indices for Re, I, and Na were 9, 11, and 6, respectively. Degradation was observed in some of the samples post 90-day ANS 16.1 tests. Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) results showed that all the hazardous contaminants were contained in the waste, and the hazardous metal concentrations were below the Universal Treatment Standard limits. Preliminary scale-up (2-gal waste forms) was conducted to demonstrate the scalability of the Ceramicrete process. Use of minimal amounts of boric acid as a set retarder was used to control the working time for the slurry. Flexibility in treating waste streams with wide ranging compositional make-ups and ease of process scale-up are attractive attributes of Ceramicrete technology.