Corrosion Monitoring Program At the Accelerated Retrieval Project Facilities

ABSTRACT Consistent with the 1995 Settlement Agreement with the State of Idaho,¹ the agreement requires removal of a portion of the waste (from identified areas) from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho site by 2018. As part of this agreement, the Accelerated Retrieval Project began in 2004 to selectively remove buried waste contaminated with transuranic radionuclides from various subsurface disposal pits located at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex. The focused objective of targeted waste retrieval is to remove specific waste forms, mutually agreed to by the Agencies, that are highly contaminated with solvents, transuranics, and uranium.² Within the first six months of operations in the second facility, red corrosion product was noted on uncoated mild and stainless steel components within the facility and the associated transition ducts for the high efficiency particulate air filters had been penetrated (pitted through) due to gaseous hydrochloric acid, high-chloride dust, and condensate in the area. A wax-based coating was applied to the damaged filter transition ducts in April 2008 and a corrosion monitoring program was established to monitor corrosion of a few select facilities during waste excavation and post-excavation activities. This paper briefly describes the corrosion monitoring program and presents corrosion data from carbon and stainless steel coupons and electrical resistance corrosion probes placed within the facilities. INTRODUCTION Consistent with the 1995 Settlement Agreement with the State of Idaho,¹ the agreement requires removal of a portion of the waste (from identified areas) from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho site by 2018. As part of this agreement, the Accelerated Retrieval Project (ARP) began in 2004 to selectively remove buried waste contaminated with transuranic radionuclides from various subsurface disposal pits located in the Subsurface Disposal Area (SDA) at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (see Figure 1).