Installation Of Bubblers In The Savannah River Sited Defense Waste Processing Facility Melter

Savannah River Remediation (SRR) LLC assumed the liquid waste contract at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in the summer of 2009. The main contractual agreement was to close 22 High Level Waste (HLW) tanks in eight years. To achieve this aggressive commitment, faster waste processing throughout the SRS liquid waste facilities will be required. Part of the approach to achieve faster waste processing is to increase the canister production rate of the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) from approximately 200 canisters filled with radioactive waste glass per year to 400 canisters per year. To reach this rate for melter throughput, four bubblers were installed in the DWPF Melter in the late summer of 2010. This effort required collaboration between SRR, SRR critical subcontractor EnergySolutions, and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, including the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL). The tasks included design and fabrication of the bubblers and related equipment, testing of the bubblers for various technical issues, the actual installation of the bubblers and related equipment, and the initial successful operation of the bubblers in the DWPF Melter.