A ceramic waste form composed of glass-bonded zeolite is being developed by the Argonne National Laboratory's Electrometallurgical Treatment Program for the disposition of radionuclides associated with the U.S. Department of Energy's spent nuclear fuel conditioning activities. Methods and criteria have been evaluated that can be applied towards the process of qualifying this material for acceptance into the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System. A range of conditions, simulating potential repository environments, were evaluated to determine the bounding parameters appropriate for the corrosion testing of the ceramic waste form. Consistency, sample preparation, and acceptance test procedure issues related to the ceramic waste form have been investigated. Results from the Product Consistency Tests with the ceramic waste form in deionized water indicate that the Sr, Ba, and rare earth simulated fission products were preferentially retained, with respect to the singly ionized cations, in the zeolite. Glass matrix dissolution and high-ionic-strength brines affect the fission product release. With slight modifications to sample preparation procedures, the American Society of Testing and Materials standard Product Consistency Test procedure provided appropriate data that may be used to develop acceptance criteria for the ceramic waste form with regards to consistency. This investigation is limited to the 7 day Product Consistency Test, but other test methodologies may also provide useful results and should not be excluded.
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