Oxidative dissolution of chromium from Hanford tank sludges under alkaline conditions

Alkaline oxidative leaching has been performed on caustic leached sludges from the three following Hanford waste tanks: BY-110, S-107, and SX-108. These samples were chosen because they represent types of waste where significant amounts of Cr are located and show relatively poor dissolution of Cr during standard caustic leaching. The experiments involved tests with three chemical oxidants, permanganate, ozone and oxygen, and a blank, argon. The effects of varying the hydroxide concentration of the leachate (from 0.1 M to 3 M) and of time and temperature (from room temperature to 80{degrees}C) were also examined.