Characterization of high-level waste saltcake stored at the Savannah River site

Since startup of the Savannah River Site over forty years ago, high-level waste from the processing of nuclear materials has been stored in large underground tanks. To reduce the volume of waste for storage, the alkaline solutions are evaporated and cooled resulting in the crystallization of salts. The crystallized salts are referred to as saltcake. Facilities have been constructed to permanently dispose of the waste. Saltcake will be dissolved in water, transferred to specially-modified waste tanks for chemical processing, and treated to remove radionuclides. This decontamination process is referred to as the In-Tank Precipitation process. Samples from the first tank of saltcake that will be processed have been obtained and analyzed to determine the chemical and radiochemical composition. The results and impacts on the In-Tank Precipitation process are presented