The destructive examination (DE) of 3013 containers after storageis part of the Surveillance and Monitoring Program based onthe U. S. Department of Energy’s standard for long-term storageof Pu (DOE-STD-3013). The stored, Pu-bearing materialsmay contain alkali halide contamination that varies from traceamounts of salt to about 50 weight percent, with smaller fractionsof other compounds and oxides. These materials were characterizedprior to packaging, and surveillance characterizationsare conducted to determine the behavior of the materials duringlong term storage.The surveillance characterization results are generally inagreement with the pre-surveillance data. The predominantphases identified by X-ray diffraction are in agreement with theexpected phase assemblages of the as-received materials. Themeasured densities are in reasonable agreement with the expecteddensities of materials containing the fraction of salts and actinideoxide specified by the pre-surveillance data. The radiochemicalresults are generally in good agreement with the pre-surveillancedata for mixtures containing “weapons grade” Pu (nominally 94percent ~(239)Pu and 6 percent ~(240)Pu); however, the ICP-MS resultsfrom the present investigation generally produce lower concentrationsof Pu than the pre-surveillance analyses. For mixturescontaining “fuel grade” Pu (nominally 81-93 percent ~(239)Pu and7-19 percent ~(240)Pu), the ICP-MS results from the present investigationappear to be in better agreement with the pre-surveillancedata than the radiochemistry results.
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