scholarly journals Full-scale leaching study of commercial reactor waste forms

1984 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.D. Kalb ◽  
P. Colombo
1988 ◽  
Vol 127 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Nomine ◽  
A. Billon ◽  
G. Courtois

The confinement ability of a waste package is one of the major safety characteristics to consider in shallow land burial. In order to determine if the confinement is acceptable, in accordance with local policy, one way is to proceed to leaching tests. The practical method, for sake of simplicity, cost and time limit, is to carry out the leaching tests on laboratory samples which are easier to prepare than full-scale blocks, but the representativity of which needs to be treated with caution; it is in this context, that one of the aspect of our work concerns what is known as the “scale effect”.This study has been conducted using blocks the volumes of which are respectively of 200, 20, 2 and 0, 2 1, and made with the same cement-waste form (13 Cs) system.


2000 ◽  
Vol 129 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Kienzler ◽  
Peter Vejmelka ◽  
Horst-Jürgen Herbert ◽  
Herbert Meyer ◽  
Corinna Altenhein-Haese

1999 ◽  
Vol 556 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. S. Rudisill ◽  
J. C. Marra ◽  
D. K. Peeler

AbstractThe Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) is developing an immobilization process for graphite fines residues generated during nuclear materials production activities at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (Rocky Flats). The continued storage of this material has been identified as an item of concern. The residue was generated during the cleaning of graphite casting molds and potentially contains reactive plutonium metal. The average residue composition is 73 wt% graphite, 15 wt% calcium fluoride (CaF2), and 12 wt% plutonium oxide (PuO2 ). Approximately 950 kg of this material are currently stored at Rocky Flats.The strategy of the immobilization process is to microencapsulate the residue by mixing with a sodium borosilicate (NBS) glass frit and heating at nominally 700°C. The resulting waste form would be sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) for disposal. Since the PuO2 concentration in the residue averages 12 wt%, the immobilization process was required to meet the intent of safeguards termination criteria by limiting plutonium recoverability based on a test developed by Rocky Flats. The test required a plutonium recovery of less than 4 g/kg of waste form when a sample was leached using a nitric acid/CaF2 dissolution flowsheet.Immobilization experiments were performed using simulated graphite fines with cerium oxide (CeO2) as a surrogate for PuO2 and with actual graphite fines residues. Small-scale surrogate experiments demonstrated that a 4:1 frit to residue ratio was adequate to prevent recovery of greater than 4 g/kg of cerium from simulated waste forms. Additional experiments investigated the impact of varying concentrations of CaF2 and the temperature/heating time cycle on the cerium recovery. Optimal processing conditions developed during these experiments were subsequently demonstrated at full-scale with surrogate materials and on a smaller scale using actual graphite fines.In general, the recovery of cerium from the full-scale waste forms was higher than for smaller scale experiments. The presence of CaF2 also caused a dramatic increase in cerium recovery not seen in the small-scale experiments. However, the results from experiments with actual graphite fines were encouraging. A 4:1 frit to residue ratio, a temperature of 700°C, and a 2 hr heating time produced waste forms with plutonium recoveries of 4±1 g/kg. With an increase in the frit to residue ratio, waste forms fabricated at this scale should meet the Rocky Flats product specification. The scale-up of the waste form fabrication process to nominally 3 kg is expected to require a 5:1 to 6:1 frit to residue ratio and maintaining the waste form centerline temperature at 700°C for 2 hr.


Author(s):  
T. J. Headley

Oxide phases having the hollandite structure have been identified in multiphase ceramic waste forms being developed for radioactive waste disposal. High resolution studies of phases in the waste forms described in Ref. [2] were initiated to examine them for fine scale structural differences compared to natural mineral analogs. Two hollandites were studied: a (Ba,Cs,K)-titan-ate with minor elements in solution that is produced in the waste forms, and a synthesized BaAl2Ti6O16 phase containing ∼ 4.7 wt% Cs2O. Both materials were consolidated by hot pressing at temperatures above 1100°C. Samples for high resolution microscopy were prepared both by ion-milling (7kV argon ions) and by crushing and dispersing the fragments on holey carbon substrates. The high resolution studies were performed in a JEM 200CX/SEG operating at 200kV.


2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis M. Hsu ◽  
Judy Hayman ◽  
Judith Koch ◽  
Debbie Mandell

Summary: In the United States' normative population for the WAIS-R, differences (Ds) between persons' verbal and performance IQs (VIQs and PIQs) tend to increase with an increase in full scale IQs (FSIQs). This suggests that norm-referenced interpretations of Ds should take FSIQs into account. Two new graphs are presented to facilitate this type of interpretation. One of these graphs estimates the mean of absolute values of D (called typical D) at each FSIQ level of the US normative population. The other graph estimates the absolute value of D that is exceeded only 5% of the time (called abnormal D) at each FSIQ level of this population. A graph for the identification of conventional “statistically significant Ds” (also called “reliable Ds”) is also presented. A reliable D is defined in the context of classical true score theory as an absolute D that is unlikely (p < .05) to be exceeded by a person whose true VIQ and PIQ are equal. As conventionally defined reliable Ds do not depend on the FSIQ. The graphs of typical and abnormal Ds are based on quadratic models of the relation of sizes of Ds to FSIQs. These models are generalizations of models described in Hsu (1996) . The new graphical method of identifying Abnormal Ds is compared to the conventional Payne-Jones method of identifying these Ds. Implications of the three juxtaposed graphs for the interpretation of VIQ-PIQ differences are discussed.


1996 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis M. Hsu

The difference (D) between a person's Verbal IQ (VIQ) and Performance IQ (PIQ) has for some time been considered clinically meaningful ( Kaufman, 1976 , 1979 ; Matarazzo, 1990 , 1991 ; Matarazzo & Herman, 1985 ; Sattler, 1982 ; Wechsler, 1984 ). Particularly useful is information about the degree to which a difference (D) between scores is “abnormal” (i.e., deviant in a standardization group) as opposed to simply “reliable” (i.e., indicative of a true score difference) ( Mittenberg, Thompson, & Schwartz, 1991 ; Silverstein, 1981 ; Payne & Jones, 1957 ). Payne and Jones (1957) proposed a formula to identify “abnormal” differences, which has been used extensively in the literature, and which has generally yielded good approximations to empirically determined “abnormal” differences ( Silverstein, 1985 ; Matarazzo & Herman, 1985 ). However applications of this formula have not taken into account the dependence (demonstrated by Kaufman, 1976 , 1979 , and Matarazzo & Herman, 1985 ) of Ds on Full Scale IQs (FSIQs). This has led to overestimation of “abnormality” of Ds of high FSIQ children, and underestimation of “abnormality” of Ds of low FSIQ children. This article presents a formula for identification of abnormal WISC-R Ds, which overcomes these problems, by explicitly taking into account the dependence of Ds on FSIQs.


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