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Committee on Waste Forms Technology and Performance
Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board
Division of Earth and Life Studies
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Govern-
ing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the
councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineer-
ing, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for
the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropri-
ate balance.
This study was supported by Contract/Grant No. DE-FC01-04EW07022 between
the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Energy. Any opin-
ions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are
those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations
or agencies that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-18733-6
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-18733-8
Additional copies of this report are available from the National Academies Press,
500 Fifth Street, N.W., Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 20055; (800) 624-6242 or
(202) 334-3313 (in the Washington metropolitan area); Internet, http://www.nap.
edu.
Copyright 2011 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
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The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society
of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to
the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare.
Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Acad-
emy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific
and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy
of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter
of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engi-
neers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members,
sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the
federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineer-
ing programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research,
and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is presi-
dent of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of
Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in
the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Insti-
tute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its
congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own
initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V.
Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences
in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the
Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government.
Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the
Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy
of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to
the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The
Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine.
Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively,
of the National Research Council.
www.national-academies.org
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COMMITTEE ON WASTE FORMS
TECHNOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE
MILTON LEVENSON (Chair), Bechtel International (retired), Menlo Park,
California
RODNEY C. EWING (Vice Chair), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
JOONHONG AHN, University of California, Berkeley
MICHAEL J. APTED, Monitor Scientific, LLC, Denver, Colorado
PETER C. BURNS, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
MANUK COLAKYAN, Dow Chemical Company, South Charleston,
West Virginia
JUNE FABRYKA-MARTIN, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos,
New Mexico
CAROL M. JANTZEN, Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken,
South Carolina
DAVID W. JOHNSON, Bell Labs (retired), Bedminster, New Jersey
KENNETH L. NASH, Washington State University, Pullman
TINA NENOFF, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Staff
KEVIN D. CROWLEY, Study Director
DANIELA STRICKLIN, Study Director (Through February 12, 2010)
SARAH CASE, Senior Staff Officer
TONI GREENLEAF, Administrative and Financial Associate
SHAUNTEÉ WHETSTONE, Senior Program Assistant
JAMES YATES, JR., Office Assistant
v
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NUCLEAR AND RADIATION STUDIES BOARD
JAY DAVIS (Chair), Hertz Foundation, Livermore, California
BARBARA J. MCNEIL (Vice Chair), Harvard Medical School, Boston,
Massachusetts
JOONHONG AHN, University of California, Berkeley
JOHN S. APPLEGATE, Indiana University, Bloomington
MICHAEL L. CORRADINI, University of Wisconsin, Madison
PATRICIA J. CULLIGAN, Columbia University, New York
ROBERT C. DYNES, University of California, San Diego
JOE GRAY, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California
DAVID G. HOEL, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston
HEDVIG HRICAK, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York
THOMAS H. ISAACS, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California
ANNIE B. KERSTING, Glenn T. Seaborg Institute, Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, Livermore, California
MARTHA S. LINET, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
FRED A. METTLER, JR., New Mexico VA Health Care System,
Albuquerque
BORIS F. MYASOEDOV, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
RICHARD J. VETTER, Mayo Clinic (retired), Rochester, Minnesota
RAYMOND G. WYMER, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (retired),
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Staff
KEVIN D. CROWLEY, Senior Board Director
SARAH CASE, Senior Program Officer
OURANIA KOSTI, Program Officer
TONI GREENLEAF, Administrative and Financial Associate
LAURA D. LLANOS, Administrative and Financial Associate
SHAUNTEÉ WHETSTONE, Senior Program Assistant
ERIN WINGO, Senior Program Assistant
JAMES YATES, JR., Office Assistant
vi
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Preface
N
uclear waste forms are at the center of a successful strategy for the
cleanup and isolation of radioactive waste from the environment.
Initially, the radioactivity is entirely contained in the waste form,
which is the first barrier to the release of radionuclides, making an impor-
tant contribution to the performance of the disposal system. Realizing that
much of its work lies ahead, the Department of Energy’s Office of Envi-
ronmental Management (DOE-EM) recognized the potential importance of
new waste forms that could offer enhanced performance and more efficient
production and requested this study by the National Research Council.
The history of nuclear waste form development and evaluation stretches
back more than 30 years. During that time there have been new ideas about
the types of materials that could be used; innovations in the technologies
for the production of these materials; new strategies for evaluating their
performance in a geologic repository; and substantial advances in the rel-
evant fields of materials science, geochemistry, processing technologies, and
computational simulations. In this report, we attempt to summarize the
advances in waste form science with the parallel advances in related fields.
Several important messages emerged from this study, including the
following:
• The evaluation of waste form performance requires careful consid-
eration of the near-field disposal environment. Only by matching
the disposal environment to a waste form material’s properties can
repository performance be optimized.
vii
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viii PREFACE
• Different materials respond to their disposal environments in dif-
ferent ways. “One shoe does not fit all.” One waste form may not
be appropriate for all disposal environments. As an example, the
optimal disposal environments for spent nuclear fuel and vitrified
waste may be different.
• There have been important advances in processing technologies,
some for other industrial applications. These new or modified tech-
nologies may find important applications in waste form production
for nuclear applications.
• It is important to recognize the limits of current modeling. Unless
the mechanisms of waste form degradation are understood, model-
ing results are best used for comparing options as opposed to
determining quantitative values of risk.
We hope that this report stimulates renewed effort in this field and
that the recommendations of the committee enable DOE-EM to progress
efficiently in its remediation efforts.
Milt Levenson (Chair)
Rod Ewing (Vice Chair)
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Acknowledgments
T
he successful completion of this report would not have been possible
without the cooperation and assistance of a large number of organi-
zations and individuals. The committee is especially grateful to the
following individuals and organizations for providing logistical support,
advice, and information for this study:
Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management: Mark
Gilberston, Yvette Collazo, Kurt Gerdes, Steve Schneider, Monica
Regulbuto, Steve Krahn, and Daryl Haefner
International Atomic Energy Agency: Zoran Drace
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission: David Esh and Tim McCartin
Staff, contractors, and regulators at the Hanford Site: Paul Bredt,
Tom Brouns, Kirk Cantrell, Nicholas Ceto III, Tom Crawford,
Suzanne Dahl, Roy Gephart, Rob Gilbert, Douglas Hildebrand,
Lori Huffman, Chris Kemp, Albert Kruger, Ken Krupka, Dean
Kurath, Brad Mason, Matthew McCormick, Eric Pierce, Jake
Reynolds, Terry Sams, John Vienna, Mike Weis, and James Wicks
Staff and contractors at the Idaho National Laboratory: Scott
Anderson, Rod Arbon, Ken Bateman, Bruce Begg, Barbara Beller,
Steve Butterworth, Jim Cooper, Ric Craun, Keith Farmer, Ray
ix
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x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Geimer, Jan Hagers, Thomas Johnson, Bill Lloyd, Keith Lockie,
Ian Milgate, Joe Nenni, Marcus Pinzel, Jay Roach, Nick Soelberg,
Mark Stubblefield, Mike Swenson, Terry Todd, and Jerry Wells
Staff and contractors at the Savannah River Site: Jeff Allison, Tom
Cantey, Neil Davis, Ginger Dickert, Jim Folk, Eric Freed, Phil
Giles, Sam Glenn, Jeff Griffen, Allen Gunter, James Marra, Sharon
Marra, David Peeler, Laurie Posey, Jeff Ray, Jean Ridley, Mike
Smith, Karthik Subramanian, George Wicks, Steve Wilkerson, and
Cliff Winkler
Speakers at the November 2009 Workshop of Waste Forms Technology
and Performance (see Appendix B): Bruce Begg (ANSTO), Claude
Degueldre (Paul Sheerer Institute), Fred Glasser (Univ. Aberdeen),
Berndt Grambow (SUBATECH), David Kosson (Vanderbilt Univ.),
Werner Lutze (Catholic Univ.), Rod McCullum (NEI), Ian Pegg
(Catholic Univ.), Mark Peters (ANL), Kath Smith (ANSTO), Carl
Steefel (LBNL), Sergey Stefanovsky (SIA Radon), Peter Swift (SNL),
Etienne Vernaz (CEA), and Bill Weber (PNNL)
The committee extends special thanks to the National Research Coun-
cil staff who supported the work of this committee. Study director Daniela
Strickland initiated the committee’s activities, made the arrangements for
most of the site visits, and organized the international workshop on waste
forms. Her early work for the committee shaped the content of the report.
Shaunteé Whetstone handled the logistics for the committee’s meetings and
site visits with great skill and attention to the needs of the committee. Kevin
Crowley stepped in as the study director for the second half of the study
period, even as he continued as the director of the Nuclear and Radiation
Studies Board. Kevin provided essential guidance to the committee and
worked tirelessly to assemble the final report. Kevin’s advice and questions
to the committee greatly improved the content of the report, and without
Kevin’s extraordinary effort, the report could not have been finished in a
timely manner.
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen
for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise in accordance with
procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review
Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid
and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published
report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional
standards of objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge.
The content of the review comments and draft manuscript remain confi-
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xi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
dential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank
the following individuals for their participation in the review of this report:
David Clarke, Harvard University
Allen Croff, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (retired)
Patricia Culligan, Columbia University
Delbert Day, Missouri University of Science and Technology
William Ebert, Argonne National Laboratory
Berndt Grambow, SUBATECH
Lisa Klein, Rutgers University
William Murphy, California State University, Chico
Alexandra Navrotsky, University of California, Davis
Michael Ojovan, The University of Sheffield
Barry Scheetz, Pennsylvania State University
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive
comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the report’s
conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the
report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Edwin
Przybylowicz, Eastman Kodak Company (retired). Appointed by the Divi-
sion on Earth and Life Studies, he was responsible for making certain that
an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance
with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully
considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely
with the authoring committee and the National Research Council.
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Contents
Executive Summary 1
1 Findings and Recommendations 3
2 Background and Study Task 15
3 Waste Forms 29
4 Waste Processing and Waste Form Production 87
5 Waste Form Testing 119
6 Waste Forms and Disposal Environments 153
7 Waste Form Performance in Disposal Systems 175
8 Legal and Regulatory Factors for Waste Form Performance 197
9 Possible Opportunities in Waste Form Science and Technology 219
Appendixes
A Biographical Sketches of Committee Members 243
B Workshop on Waste Form Technology and Performance 251
C Interim Report 255
D Glossary 285
E Acronyms 291
xiii
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