Evacuable Small-Sized Direct Joule-Heated Melter Designed by PA Mayak to Immobilize LRW from SNF Reprocessing into Borosilicate Glass Developed and Tested as Part of a New HLW Vitrification Complex

The article describes the State of Art in HLW vitrifi ation at the PA Mayak’s radiochemical production facility. It presents some conceptual and engineering designs that may further advance the vitrifi ation technology at the enterprise considering various types of liquid HLW. The article discusses the key differences between the promising evacuable small-sized melter and the units previously operated at the enterprise. It overviews its evolvement stages and the results of tests run at PA Mayak in 2018—2020 on the prototypes of evacuable small-sized direct Joule-heated melters designed for borosilicate glass melting. The paper overviews a wide range of the implemented studies and the melters’ operational experience. It focuses more specifi ally on the third improved prototype of an evacuable small-sized melter with its designs developed by PA Mayak in 2022 based on the previously tested prototypes.