Accounting for a Vitrified Plutonium Waste Form in the Yucca Mountain Repository Total System Performance Assessment (TSPA)

摘要

A vitrification technology utilizing a lanthanide borosilicate (LaBS) glass appears to be a viable option for dispositioning excess weapons-useable plutonium that is not suitable for processing into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel. A significant effort to develop a glass formulation and vitrification process to immobilize plutonium was completed in the mid-1990s to support the Plutonium Immobilization Program (PIP). Further refinement of the vitrification process was accomplished as part of the Am/Cm solution vitrification project. The LaBS glass formulation was found to be capable of immobilizing in excess of 10 wt% Pu and to be very tolerant of the impurities accompanying the plutonium material streams. Thus, this waste form would be suitable for dispositioning plutonium owned by the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) that may not be well characterized and may contain high levels of impurities.