K Basin Sludge Conditioning Testing Nitric Acid Dissolution Testing of K East Area Sludge Composite, Small- and Large-Scale Testing

This report describes work performed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for Numatec Hanford Corporation (NHC) to support the development of the K Basin Sludge Treatment System. For this work, testing was performed to examine the dissolution behavior of a K East Basin floor and Weasel Pit sludge composite, referred to as K East area sludge composite, in nitric acid at the following concentrations: 2 M, 4 M, 6 M and 7.8 M. With the exception of one high solids loading test the nitric acid was added at 4X the stoichiometric requirement (assuming 100% of the sludge was uranium metal). The dissolution tests were conducted at boiling temperatures for 24 hours. Most of the tests were conducted with {approximately}2.5 g of sludge (dry basis). The high solids loading test was conducted with {approximately}7 g of sludge. A large-scale dissolution test was conducted with 26.5 g of sludge and 620 mL of 6 M nitric acid. The objectives of this test were to (1) generate a sufficient quantity of acid-insoluble residual solids for use in leaching studies, and (2) examine the dissolution behavior of the sludge composite at a larger scale.