Laboratory-Scale Integrated ARP Filter Test

The Savannah River Site (SRS) is currently treating radioactive liquid waste with the Actinide Removal Process (ARP) and the Modular Caustic Side Solvent Extraction Unit (MCU). Recently, the low filter flux through the ARP of approximately 5 gallons per minute has limited the rate at which radioactive liquid waste can be treated. Salt Batch 6 had a lower processing rate and required frequent filter cleaning. There is a desire to understand the causes of the low filter flux and to increase ARP/MCU throughput.

One plausible cause of the low filter flux is plugging of the primary (i.e., crossflow) or secondary filters. Much of the testing that was conducted to design and develop the filtration process in ARP focused on one aspect of the process (e.g., filtration, washing, chemical cleaning) rather than the entire process.

This work attempted to simulate the entire ARP process, including multiple batches (5), washing, chemical cleaning, and blending the feed with heels and recycle streams. The objective of the tests was to determine whether one of these processes is causing excessive fouling of the crossflow or secondary filter. The authors conducted the tests with feed solutions containing 6.6 M sodium Salt Batch 6 simulant supernate with no MST.

This presentation will describe the test design and the test results.