Evaporation and Storage of Liquid Radioactive Waste

The liquid wastes produced during the processing of radioactive materials at the Savannah River Site were initially stored in large underground tanks constructed of carbon steel. These liquid wastes were generated from the Purex process (for producing plutonium) and the HM process (for producing tritium). The liquid wastes were designated as high-level wastes and lowlevel wastes. As the production requirements increased with the resulting increase in liquid wastes, additional storage tanks and associated facilities were constructed. Since the waste volume was large and waste storage facilities construction was expensive, methods to reduce the cost of storing these wastes and increase the safety of storage were implemented. Storage tanks of differing designs and facilities to concentrate and to handle waste in the tank farms were constructed. These modifications resulted in significant cost savings and increases in liquid waste storage safety. Liquid wastes produced during radioactive materials processing at the Savannah River Site were discharged to large underground tanks for interim storage. Processing these stored wastes is underway to convert them to a solid form for permanent disposal. A vitrified waste form will contain most of the radioactivity, and a concrete waste form (saltstone) will contain most of the chemicals. This paper addresses the interim storage of these liquid radioactive wastes from the initial processing of radioactive material, which began in 1954. During storage, these wastes were concentrated by evaporation to reduce their volume resulting in major economic savings and increase the safety of storage (Goodlett 1976a, 1976b).