RADIOCHEMICAL ANALYSES FOR THE DEFENSE WASTE PROCESSING FACILITY STARTUP AT THE SAVANNA RIVER SITE

Highly radioactive waste from defense-related activities at the Savann ah River Site in South Carolina are to be incorporated into a borosili cate glass in the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) for long-te rm geological isolation. Processing and repository safety consideratio ns require the determination of 24 radioisotopes that meet the reporti ng criteria. These isotopes include fission products, activation produ cts, and daughter nuclei that grow into the waste. Four isotopes, Cs-1 37, Sr-90,, Pu-238 and U-238 will be routinely measured in the DWPF op eration for process control. ?his work shows that the concentrations o f 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-ra dioactive components in the vitrification process.