Rapid stirred melting of simulated West Valley high level waste

A previous paper has described the basic characteristics of the new highly stirred glass melters. Generally, the models of most interest for vitrifying radioactive wastes, hazardous or mixed are Joule heated melters with the impeller, electrodes, and tank lining fabricated from alloy 690. This paper describes the newest laboratory scale Stir-Meltertrademark, the WV-0.25 model, and its first melting trials on simulated West Valley high level waste (HLW). In these tests, the waste was fed as a slurry from one feeder while the required glass making additions were fed dry from a second feeder. This unique capability will allow on line adjustments of feed streams to maintain glass composition. 5 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs