Russian-American strategy for stabilization and immobilization of excess Russian weapons origin plutonium

摘要

In the US, impure Pu-containing materials such as residues and scrapes are in storage, in known quantities, and in materials of various compositions with known Pu contents. However, in Russia, there are no substantial quantities of accumulated impure Pu-containing materials awaiting processing either for disposition or for transuranic (TRU) geologic disposal as there are in the Us. during the Cold War, the Russian approach to Pu processing for weapons production was different from that of the US. All impure Pu- containing materials were routinely reprocessed, and the residual Pu was recovered and purified for reuse until residual Pu levels of less than 200 mg/kg (less than 200 ppm) in any discharged solid process waste streams were reached. Wastes containing less than 200 ppm Pu were routinely discharged for burial in cement waste forms. Russia is studying changing from this practice of recovery of impure Pu for reuse to immobilizing future impure Pu-containing materials into solids at higher concentrations of Pu than 200 ppm for eventual geologic disposal.