Extended Development Work to Validate a HLW Calcine Waste Form via INL's Cold Crucible Induction Melter

Abstract

To accomplish calcine treatment objectives, the Idaho Clean-up Project contractor, CWI, has chosen to immobilize the calcine in a glass-ceramic via the use of a Hot-Isostatic-Press (HIP); a treatment selection formally documented in a 2010 Record of Decision (ROD). Even though the HIP process may prove suitable for the calcine as specified in the ROD and validated in a number of past value engineering sessions, DOE is evaluating back-up treatment methods for the calcine as a result of the technical, schedule, and cost risk associated with the HIPing process. Consequently DOE HQ has requested DOE ID to make INL's bench-scale cold-crucible induction melter (CCIM) available for investigating its viability as a process alternate to calcine treatment. The waste form is the key component of immobilization of radioactive waste. Providing a solid, stable, and durable material that can be easily be stored is the rationale for immobilization of radioactive waste material in glass, ceramic, or glass-ceramics. Ceramic waste forms offer an alternative to traditional borosilicate glass waste forms. Ceramics can usually accommodate higher waste loadings than borosilicate glass, leading to smaller intermediate and long-term storage facilities. Many ceramic phases are known to possess superior chemical durability as compared to borosilicate glass. However, ceramics are generally multiphase systems containing many minor phase that make characterization and prediction of performance within a repository challenging. Additionally, the technologies employed in ceramic manufacture are typically more complex and expensive. Thus, many have proposed using glass-ceramics as compromise between in the more inexpensive, easier to characterize glass waste forms and the more durable ceramic waste forms. Glass-ceramics have several advantages over traditional borosilicate glasses as a waste form. Borosilicate glasses can inadvertently devitrify, leading to a less durable product that could crack during cooling and crystals may be prone to dissolution. By designing a glass-ceramics, the risks of deleterious effects from devitrification are removed. Furthermore, glass-ceramics have higher mechanical strength and impact strengths and possess greater chemical durability as noted above. Glass-ceramics should provide a waste form with the advantages of glass - ease of manufacture - with improved mechanical properties, thermal stability, and chemical durability. This report will cover aspects relevant for the validation of the CCIM use in the production of glass-ceramic waste forms.