Up Close: Immobilization of High-Level Nuclear Waste at the Savannah River Plant

At the Savannah River Plant (SRP), construction of what will be the world's largest solidification facility for nuclear waste has been under way since 1983. Beginning in 1990, the nearly 100 million liters of liquid high-level nuclear waste now stored on the site will be made into a durable borosilicate glass in this Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF).In developing a slurry-fed melting process for the DWPF, we made advances in understanding both glass processing and glass durability. This article focuses on what we learned and what further advances are likely to be made.Generally speaking, the goal of any glass technologist is to make a good glass and to make it well. In the glass industry a good product is whatever people will buy. To make it well means, above all, to make the product as economically as possible. Thus, the commercial glass technologist will control the composition of the melter feed material very closely to ensure that only the components necessary for glass performance are included, and in the least expensive form possible. The commercial glass technologist may also tolerate low yields or specify several stages of post-melt processing if it is necessary to produce a product to demanding specifications.To the nuclear waste glass technologist, however, a good product is one which will be stable in geologic environments for millions of years.