The Plutonium Transition from Nuclear Weapons to Crypt

With the end of the ''Cold War'' thousands of nuclear warheads are being dismantled. The National Academy of Sciences termed this growing stockpile of plutonium and highly enriched uranium ''a clear and present danger'' to international security. DOE/MD selected a duel approach to plutonium disposition--burning MOX fuel in existing reactors and immobilization in a ceramic matrix surrounded by HLW glass. MOX material will be pits and clean metal. The challenges come with materials that will be transferred to Immobilization--these range from engineered materials to residues containing < 30% Pu. Impurity knowledge range from guesses to actual data. During packaging, sites will flag ''out of the ordinary'' containers for characterized. If the process history is lost, characterization cost will escalate rapidly. After two step blending and ceramic precursor addition, cold press and sintering will form 0.5-kg ceramic pucks containing ≤50 g Pu. Pucks will be sealed in cans, placed into magazines, then into HLW canisters; these canisters will be filled with HLW glass prior to being transported to the HLW repository. The Immobilization Program must interface with DP, EM, RW, and NN. Overlaid on top of these interfaces are the negotiations with the Russians