Glenn L. Edgemon

History and Operation of the Hanford High-Level Waste Storage Tanks

Abstract The Hanford Site is a 560-square-mile (1,450-km2) complex established by the U.S. government in 1943 to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons, ultimately bringing an end to World War II. Plutonium production activities continued after the war through 1991, at which point the sites mission changed from plutonium production to environmental cleanup and restoration. Production activities at the site resulted in a broad range of contaminated materials and facilities, including 57 million gallons of high-level (i.e., highly radioactive) nuclear waste in liquid and solid forms. The high-level waste was stored as it was created, first in single-shell tanks built between 1943 and 1964, then in more robust double-shell tanks constructed between 1968 and 1986. Due to waste leakage in a small number of single-shell tanks and the potential for additional single-shell tank failures, all single-shell tanks were removed from service by 1980. All pumpable liquid has been transferred to sound double-shell tanks....

Sensitization Behavior of Alloy 800H as Characterized by the Electrochemical Potentiokinetic Reactivation (EPR) Technique

Abstract The need for a nondestructive test to evaluate levels of sensitization in alloy 800H (UNS N08810) led to modification of the electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation (EPR) test techniq...

Design and Performance of Electrochemical Noise Corrosion Monitoring Systems at the Hanford Site

The Hanford radioactive waste storage site outside of Richland, Washington has 177 underground waste tanks that store approximately 253 million liters of radioactive waste from 50 years of plutonium production. No online corrosion monitoring systems are in place at Hanford to facilitate the early detection of the onset of localized corrosion should it occur in a waste tank. Because of this, a program was started in 1995 to develop an electrochemical noise (EN) system to improve Hanfords corrosion monitoring strategy. The design of the latest systems and the results of operation are described herein.

Corrosion data from Hanford high-level waste tank 241-AN-107

Document describes first year of operation of 241-AN-107 electrochemical noise based corrosion monitoring system. Data and system status are presented.

Detection of localized and general corrosion of mild steel in simulated defense nuclear waste solutions using electrochemical noise analysis

Underground waste tanks fabricated from mild steel store more than 60 million gallons of radioactive waste from 50 years of weapons production. Leaks are suspected in a significant number of tanks. The probable modes of corrosion failures are reported to be localized corrosion (e.g. nitrate stress corrosion cracking and pitting). The use of electrochemical noise (EN) for the monitoring and detection of localized corrosion processes has received considerable attention and application over the last several years. Proof of principle laboratory tests were conducted to verify the capability of EN evaluation to detect localized corrosion and to compare the predictions of general corrosion obtained from EN with those derived from other sources. Simple, pre-fabricated flat and U-bend specimens of steel alloys A516-Grade 60 (UNS K02100) and A537-CL 1 (UNS K02400) were immersed in temperature controlled simulated waste solutions. The simulated waste solution was either 5M NaNO{sub 3} with 0.3M NaOH at 90 C or 11M NaNO{sub 3} with 0.15M NaOH at 95 C. The electrochemical noise activity from the specimens was monitored and recorded for periods ranging between 140 and 240 hours. At the end of each test period, the specimens were metallographically examined to correlated EN data with corrosion damage.