Open AccessHYDROGEN AND VOC RETENTION IN WASTE BOXES
Author(s) -
Pace Me,
Marusich Rm
Publication year - 2008
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/943340
Subject(s) - deflagration , flammable liquid , waste management , hazardous waste , environmental science , hanford site , radioactive waste , hazard analysis , hazard , remedial action , chemical waste , containment (computer programming) , engineering , explosive material , computer science , contamination , chemistry , environmental remediation , reliability engineering , detonation , organic chemistry , ecology , programming language , biology
The Hanford Waste Management Project Master Documented Safety Analysis (MDSA) (HNF-14741, 2003) identifies derived safety controls to prevent or mitigate the risks of a single-container deflagration during operations requiring moving, venting or opening transuranic (TRU)-waste containers. The issue is whether these safety controls are necessary for operations involving TRU-waste boxes that are being retrieved from burial at the Hanford Site. This paper investigates the potential for a deflagration hazard within these boxes and whether safety controls identified for drum deflagration hazards should be applied to operations involving these boxes. The study evaluates the accumulation of hydrogen and VOCs within the waste box and the transport of these gases and vapors out of the waste box. To perform the analysis, there were numerous and major assumptions made regarding the generation rate and the transport pathway dimensions and their number. Since there is little actual data with regards to these assumptions, analyses of three potential configurations were performed to obtain some indication of the bounds of the issue (the concentration of hydrogen or flammable VOCs within a waste box). A brief description of each of the three cases along with the results of the analysis is summarized