Detailed Process Descriptions

DOE-HDBK-3010-94

Appendix B; Plutonium Recovery Facility

reaction without the necessity of bringing the furnace system itself to high temperatures and

pressures and maintaining them. Upon completion of the reduction cycle, the charge is

cooled and the crucible broken. The plutonium metal button formed is separated from the

sand slag and crucible and passed through an airlock to the pickling station where it is

consecutively dipped in nitric acid and water, drilled to obtain a small sample for analysis,

weighed and packaged for transfer to assay.

There are other aspects of the production operation that are not captured on the simplified

flowsheet. Between the dissolving line and the wet processing line, there is a sample

glovebox that consists of three sampling pumps for pre-ion exchange solutions, post-ion

exchange solutions, and waste solutions. This glovebox is used to draw samples from the

chemical tank farm. There is also the vessel vent system, located before the feed preparation

glovebox. This system consists of a fan that draws a vacuum on process vessels to pull

acidic vent gases through a potassium hydroxide scrubber before discharge to the exhaust

system. A final modification of note is that waste solutions can be diverted to any of the

waste tanks (#9 - #12, #17 - #21) if process upsets have led to excessive accumulation from

any one process.

Other activities carried out in H Plant include assay and temporary storage. Special assay

facilities and a vault are provided for product buttons. A contiguous area of the facility is

used to store solid waste pails, assay them, and package them in TRU waste drums.

2.2.2

D etailed P rocess D escrip tion s

2.2.2.1 F eed P rep aration

The feed preparation glovebox line serves to process oxides and residues as necessary to

prepare them for dissolution. This effort consists of burning metallic fragments to oxide,

breaking up large residue pieces into smaller pieces, weighing, batching, and temporarily

storing material to be processed. The following stations are provided in the glovebox:

- Airlock entry;

- Unpackaging;

- Bag-in/Bag-out port

- Impactor;

- Furnace;

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