Vitrification of a surrogate for high-level wastes from the Savannah River facility (USA) in a commercial cold-crucible facility

Experiments on vitrifying a surrogate for SB2 pulp from the Savannah River facility (USA) in a cold crucible with inner diameter 418 mm in a commercial facility for vitrifying medium-level wastes at the Moscow Scientific and Industrial Association Radon are performed. Borosilicate glass materials, containing 50 mass % oxides of the wastes, including a magnetitic spinel phase in amounts not exceeding 15 vol. %, are obtained. The maximum mass average velocity of the slurry load and the melt output reach 40 and 16 kg/h, respectively. This corresponds to maximum specific vitrified wastes production capacity 2830 kg/(m super(2).day). The specific energy consumption for obtaining the glass product is about 10 kW.h/kg, which is approximately half the level for reprocessing slurries in crucibles with half the diameter. The chemical stability of the glass materials is 10-50 times higher than that of the materials made from glasses recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency.