Boron nitride: Novel ceramic reductant for low‐activity waste vitrification
Abstract During vitrification of radioactive wastes, excessive foaming reduces processing rates within melters by hindering heat transfer from the molten glass pool to the reacting melter feed. Formulations of low‐activity waste (LAW) melter feeds, for vitrification at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site, conventionally include the addition of sucrose to mitigate excessive foaming by hastening the denitration process. However, incomplete combustion of sucrose produces organics such as acetonitrile (C 2 H 3 N) that may exceed bounding limits of downstream effluent treatment facilities. Using boron nitride (BN) as an alternate reductant to sucrose, in a representative LAW melter feed reduced C 2 H 3 N production by 90% by preventing the low‐temperature sucrose–nitrate reactions. Furthermore, foaming was suppressed due to the higher decomposition temperature of BN than H 3 BO 3 meaning a delayed reaction of a large fraction of boron with the transient glass‐forming melt until above the foam onset temperature, thus reducing the quantity and viscosity of the connected melt and trapping less gas in the foam layer.
Authors
- Alex Scrimshire (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6828-3620)
- Mark Hall
- Jessica C. Rigby (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3571-9977)
- Pavel Ferkl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2844-3199)
- Albert A. Kruger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8468-0813)
- Nancy Washton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9643-6794)
- José Marcial (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6156-5310)
- Kee Sung Han (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3535-1818)
- Richard Pokorný (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9023-0381)
- Pavel Hrma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-7851-7877)
- William Eaton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7818-6808)
- Paul A. Bingham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6017-0798)
- Jaroslav Kloužek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6826-1632)
Institutions
- United States Department of Energy (US)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (US)
- Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Rock Structure and Mechanics (CZ)
- Sheffield Hallam University (GB)
- University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (CZ)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of the American Ceramic Society
- Published
- 2024-10-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/jace.20192
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Nuclear materials and radiation effects
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.12
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Battelle
- Sheffield Hallam University
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory