A glove box vitrification system is being fabricated to process aqueousevaporator bottom waste generated at the Plutonium Facility (TA-55) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The system will be the first within the U.S. Department of Energy Complex to routinely convert Pu(sup 239) -contaminated transuranic (TRU) waste to a glass matrix for eventual disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Currently at LANL, aqueous evaporator bottom waste (TRU waste) is solidified in cement. Radionuclide loading in the cementation process is restricted by potential radiolytic degradation (expressed as a wattage limit), which has been imposed to prevent the accumulation of flammable concentrations of H(sub 2) within waste packages. Waste matrixes with a higher water content (e.g., cement) are assigned a lower permissible wattage limit to compensate for their potential higher generation of H(sub 2). This significantly increases the number of waste packages that must be prepared and shipped, thus driving up the costs of waste handling and disposal.
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