Support for the in situ vitrification treatability study at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory: FY 1988 summary

The objective of this project is to determine if in situ vitrification (ISV) is a viable, long-term confinement technology for previously buried solid transuranic and mixed waste at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC). The RWMC is located at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL). In situ vitrification is a thermal treatment process that converts contaminated soils and wastes into a durable glass and crystalline form. During processing, heavy metals or other inorganic constituents are retained and immobilized in the glass structure, and organic constituents are typically destroyed or removed for capture by an off-gas treatment system. The primary FY 1988 activities included engineering-scale feasibility tests on INEL soils containing a high metals loading. Results of engineering-scale testing indicate that wastes with a high metals content can be successfully processed by ISV. The process successfully vitrified soils containing localized metal concentrations as high as 42 wt % without requiring special methods to prevent electrical shorting within the melt zone. Vitrification of this localized concentration resulted in a 15.9 wt % metals content in the entire ISV test block. This ISV metals limit is related to the quantity of metal that accumulates at the bottom of the molten glass zone. Intermediate pilot-scale testing is recommended to determine metals content scale-up parameters in order to project metals content limits for large-scale ISV operation at INEL