Comparison of simulants to actual neutralized current acid waste: Process and product testing of three NCAW core samples from Tanks 101-AZ and 102-AZ

A vitrification plant is planned to process the high-level waste (HLW) solids from Hanford Site tanks into canistered glass logs for disposal in a national repository. Programs have been established within the Pacific Northwest Laboratory Vitrification Technology Development (PVTD) Project to test and model simulated waste to support design, feed processability, operations, permitting, safety, and waste-form qualification. Parallel testing with actual radioactive waste is being performed on a laboratory-scale to confirm the validity of using simulants and glass property models developed from simulants. Laboratory-scale testing has been completed on three radioactive core samples from tanks 101-AZ and 102-AZ containing neutralized current acid waste (NCAW), which is one of the first waste types to be processed in the high-level waste vitrification plant under a privatization scenario. Properties of the radioactive waste measured during process and product testing were compared to simulant properties and model predictions to confirm the validity of simulant and glass property models work. This report includes results from the three NCAW core samples, comparable results from slurry and glass simulants, and comparisons to glass property model predictions