Characterization of the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) Environmental Assessment (EA) glass standard reference material

Abstract

Liquid high-level nuclear waste at the Savannah River Site (SRS) will be immobilized by vitrification in borosilicate glass. The glass will be produced and poured into stainless steel canisters in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). Other waste form producers, such as West Valley Nuclear Services (WVNS) and the Hanford Waste Vitrification Project (HWVP), will also immobilize high-level radioactive waste in borosilicate glass. The canistered waste will be stored temporarily at each facility for eventual permanent disposal in a geologic repository. The Department of Energy has defined a set of requirements for the canistered waste forms, the Waste Acceptance Preliminary Specifications (WAPS). The current Waste Acceptance Preliminary Specification (WAPS) 1.3, the product consistency specification, requires the waste form producers to demonstrate control of the consistency of the final waste form using a crushed glass durability test, the Product Consistency Test (PCT). In order to be acceptable, a waste glass must be more durable during PCT analysis than the waste glass identified in the DWPF Envirorunental Assessment (EA). In order to supply all the waste form producers with the same standard benchmark glass, 1000 pounds of the EA glass was fabricated. The chemical analyses and characterization of the benchmark EA glassmore » are reported. This material is now available to act as a durability, analytic, and/or redox Standard Reference Material (SRM) for all waste form producers.« less