Radiochemical analyses for the defense waste processing facility startup at the Savannah River Site

Highly radioactive waste from defense-related activities at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina are to be incorporated into a borosilicate glass in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) for long-tem geological isolation. Processing and repository safety considerations require the determination of 24 radioisotopes that meet the reporting criteria. These isotopes include fission products, activation products, and daughter nuclei that grow into the waste. Four isotopes,¹³⁷Cs,⁹⁰Sr,²³⁸Pu and²³⁸U will be routinely measured in the DWPF operation for process control. This work shows that the concentrations of the other 20 reportable radioisotopes in the final glass product can be predicted from a thorough characterization of the high level waste (HLW) tanks and a knowledge of the concentrations of the major non-radioactive components in the vitrification process.