Bulging of cans containing plutonium residues. Summary report

Radiation Effects in Glasses Used for Immobilization of High-level Waste and Plutonium Disposition

“…Additionally, the durability of the waste form becomes a very important concern with the disposal of the fissile material, 239 Pu and its daughter 235 U (the halflives of 239 Pu and 235 U are 2.41 3 10 4 and 7.04 3 10 8 years, respectively 17 ), because any degradation of the waste form due to radiation effects may lead to increased corrosion rates and subsequent nuclide transport and reconcentration that could conceivably lead to criticality in a repository. [18][19][20] Glass compositions currently under development for immobilization of Pu at the Savannah River Site 21 and Argonne National Laboratory 22 are significantly different from the compositions that have been investigated for immobilization of high-level tank wastes, and it is proposed that 5 to 20 wt. % Pu be incorporated into these glass waste forms.…”

Radiolysis of Salts and Long-Term Storage Issues for Both Pure and Impure PuO{sub 2} Materials in Plutonium Storage Containers

“…• First, the G values for primary radiolysis products are very small for both kinds of irradiation because a host of secondary reactions have a net effect of regenerating water (Allen et al 1952, BŸppelmann et al 1988, Gray and Simonson 1984, Van Konynenburg et al 1996; and…”

“…Corrosion of steel by HCl also generates additional gases, such as hydrogen Mšnig 1993, Gommlich et al 1995). For this HCL gas production to take place, the corrosive gas molecules need only to circulate from the point of production in the oxide to the gas phase and then to a reactive surface, a process expected to take no more than a few seconds (Van Konynenburg et al 1996). This condition makes detecting HCl in field tests impossible.…”

Operation of the Oxide Washer for Water-Washing Solubles out of Impure Pu Oxide

“…The impure Pu oxide material that is being processed here has been described by Van Konynenburg et al 3 The material was accumulated at LLNL from Pu residues from 1970 to the present time. The sources of Pu residues have included machine turnings, research samples, metallographic samples, X-ray samples, residues from chemical analyses of Pu, Pu-containing solutions, crucible residues, cleaning tissues (e.g., Kimwipes) used to mop up chemical spills, glovebox sweepings, and a number of other residues.…”

“…These calcined materials were ball milled into a powder and then packaged for storage. A more detailed description of the historical processing and storage problems of the Pu residues (see Van Konynenburg et al 3 for a complete overview) will now be given so that there will be more insight as to impurity effects.…”