Waste immobilization program

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is researching technologies for the stabilization and immobilization of fly ash contaminated with radionuclides and metals that will reduce waste material volume and consistently satisfy regulatory requirements. The Mixed Waste Focus Area (MWFA), a DOE/EM-50 program, has stated the need for improved stabilization methods that would accept higher ash waste loadings. To address these issues, the MWFA has invested in a sintered ceramic stabilization technique developed by Clemson University. 

To demonstrate that the various potential high-level waste compositions are all amenable to immobilization, the WFP program uses two standard waste compositions. These are a clean waste, designated PW-4b (which is essentially first-cycle raffinate), and a dirty waste (designated PW-6), which contains large amounts of sodium and iron see Table II). It should be noted that there are other possible constituents of high-level wastes, such as fiuoride, mercury, and soluble poisons which are not included in the initial demonstration program. 

In the past few years work has resumed on the development of the process for immobilization of wastes in glass to adapt it to the types of wastes now anticipated (83). Since it is not certain that Canadian irradiated fuel will be processed to recover plutonium, this program also is... 

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