A description of the ceramic waste form production process from the demonstration phase of the electrometallurgical treatment of EBR-II spent fuel

The electrometallurgical treatment (EMT) process has been designed and deve loped for stabilizing sodium-bonded, metallic fuel into two high-level wast e forms. This process has recently been successfully demonstrated with irra diated EBR-II fuel at Argonne National Laboratory-West. Part of the EMT pro cess is to immobilize fission-product-bearing waste salt, which results fro m electrorefining, in a ceramic waste form - a glass-bonded sodalite. The s odalite is formed by hot isostatically pressing salt-loaded zeolite at temp eratures up to 850 degreesC and pressures up to 100 MPa. The specific unit operations that comprise ceramic waste production include steps for salt gr inding, zeolite drying, blending salt and zeolite and glass frit in a v-ble nder, and consolidating the powders in a hot isostatic press. The results o f testing these unit operations with irradiated salt from the EMT demonstra tion are summarized and include some preliminary characterization of the fi nal irradiated ceramic waste form created by this process.