TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE CEMENTATION AT LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY (LANL)

At the LANL TA-55 Plutonium Facility, cement fixation has been used for 25 years to dispose of TRU-radioactive a wastes generated by its plutonium processing activities at Technical Area 55 (TA-55). As regulations and standards propagated, particularly those associated with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) [1] and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) [2] , the cementation process was upgraded to meet ever more stringent requirements. In addition, improvements were made to the process equipment and raw materials to increase throughput and waste loading and reduce labor intensity. This presentation will discuss the evolution of cementation operations from 1980 to 2005.