A Description of the Ceramic Waste Form Production Process from the Demonstration Phase of the Electrometallurgical Treatment of EBR-II Spent Fuel

Plutonium-238 alpha-decay damage study of the ceramic waste form.

“…The higher density of the 238 Pu-loaded CWF is attributed to the high Pu loading in the sample. 3 2.342 ± 0.004 g/cm 3 2.698 ± 0.005 g/cm…”

“…A decrease in density of the sample provides the most direct evidence of macroscopic volume expansion due to alpha-decay damage, yet as mentioned none has been observed at the dose level of 1.4 x 10 18 alpha-decays/gram of material. The density of the 238 Pu-loaded CWF, as determined by immersion in water, is 2.426 ± 0.006 g/cm 3 . This density compares to an average density of 2.35 ± 0.02 g/cm 3 for non-Pu reference CWF material.…”

“…(12.7 cm) tall, 3 in. (7.6 cm) diameter volume encases 580 cm 3 . This is the approximate volume of a standard shipping container.…”

“…After the salt is removed from the electrorefiner, the fission products are immobilized by mixing the salt with a zeolite material. Production of the durable CWF is accomplished by mixing salt-occluded zeolite with a glass binder and processing the mixture at high temperature to form a dense, glass encapsulate waste form [3,4]. During the heating process the zeolite is converted to the mineral phase sodalite.…”

SELECTIVE REDUCTION OF ACTIVE METAL CHLORIDES FROM MOLTEN LiCl-KCl USING LITHIUM DRAWDOWN

“…To achieve high actinide recycle efficiency, it is necessary to keep the actinides out of the waste streams. In the current implementation of pyroprocessing for treating spent fuel from Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), waste salt from electrorefining is planned to be disposed of in a ceramic waste form consisting of glassbonded sodalite [1,2]. Since the salt contains up to 10 wt% actinide chlorides, this represents a significant path for loss of the actinides into a waste stream.…”