Calcination of WM-183 waste

One of the principal tasks at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant is the calcining of liquid waste generated from processing spent nuclear fuels. This report discusses flowsheet development work done to process the waste in tank WM-183 - a blend of aluminum nitrate, electrolytic first-cycle extraction, and sodium wastes. Yet, since the development of the original flowsheet, the waste in tank WM-183 has been concentrated, blended with other wastes, and transferred to tank WM-189. However, the work described in this report was used to choose a method for calcining this modified waste: it is being calcined as a blend with zirconium fluoride waste; enough calcium nitrate is being added to the blend to give it a calcium-to-fluoride mole ratio of 0.60 to 0.70. The work done in this report will also expedite the processing of other waste blends.