SRL in-situ tests in the United Kingdom: Part 1, program document and sample emplacements

The primary objective of the high-level waste management program at the Savannah River Plant (SRP) is to safely and effectively immobilize high-level radioactive defense waste into borosilicate glass. By federal law this glass will ultimately be disposed of in a deep, geologic repository. Thus, it is necessary to demonstrate that the waste glass will perform well in the geologic environment. A multiphase experimental effort, directed at assessing and understanding waste glass behavior under repository conditions, has been in progress at Savannah River Laboratory (SRL) for approximately seven years. Emphasized in this program are waste glass and repository relevant interactions both on a laboratory scale and in field tests. The field or in-situ experiments are exemplified by the burial of over 100 simulated SRL waste glass samples in the granite site at Stripa in Sweden; field tests involving burial of simulated SRL waste glasses in clay at Mol, Belgium; in-situ testing of simulated waste forms from seven different countries and almost 2000 waste form and package component samples buried at the WIPP salt site at Carlsbad, NM; and the burial of SRL waste glasses and natural glass analogues in limestone at Ballidon in the United Kingdom. It is the objective ofmore » this report to describe the new SRL in-situ program conducted in the UK. 33 refs., 5 figs., 4 tabs.« less