Leachability of Cement Encapsulated West Valley Radwaste Streams

Low-level radwaste streams to be generated during the cleanup of the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at West Valley, New York will require disposal in an environmentally acceptable manner. A study was conducted to determine if presently identified waste streams could be encapsulated in cement to produce a waste form which complies with present NRC guidelines for the disposal of.low-level radwaste streams. One waste stability guideline is leachability which was examined in this study. The leach testing was performed in accordance with the ANS 16.1 procedure. This static, deionized water test examined the leach rate of contaminants from radioactively spiked (Cs-137) samples of each waste type. The data obtained from this method were used to generate from diffusion calculations a parameter called a leachability index (L) which is related to the leaching characteristics of the solidified waste. All waste forms exceeded an L value of 6, which is the minimum suggested by the NRC “Branch Technical Position on Waste Form” for the disposal of Class B and Class C radioactive wastes.