Westinghouse’s Manufacturing Team designed, fabricated, and tested a large, modular, and very complex Stored Liquid Waste (SLW) Processing System to process historic fuel reprocessing waste from underground storage tanks. Following an Integrated Project Team approach, Westinghouse worked hand-in-hand with the client from design through manufacturing and testing.
The SLW Processing System was designed to target and remove specific radionuclides from historic intermediate-level radioactive liquid wastes. Beyond radiological hazards, the removal of the radionuclide from the system was further complicated by the very acidic nature of the fluid as it creates industrial hygiene and occupational health and safety hazards. The fluid was stored separately in stainless steel tanks distributed in a relatively underdeveloped site. This required the installation of environmental controls to protect the system and provide containment, a reliable process piping to accommodate the acidic and radioactive material as well as stable control systems to provide accurate process controls.
Westinghouse’s experts completed a thorough problem assessment, resulting in a custom design of a modular ion exchange system to remove radionuclides of interest. The system is comprised of an overall building structure, a sub-system structure, circulation pump, process piping, ion exchange components and vessels, electrical controls, and secondary containment. Critical to the ion exchange system are the shielded pressure vessels which contain the ion exchange resin and provide long-term storage of the waste. Significant engineering analyses was applied to the vessels including FEA drop analysis, ASME pressure boundary analysis, shielding analysis, and tornado-generated projectile analysis.
Other major components such as the process and transport piping, flush system, blow down system, and comprehensive secondary containment system also required intensive design and consideration.