Sandia solidification process: a brief overview

The Sandia Solidification Process effectively removes virtually all cationic species from a reactor waste stream and can also remove selected isotopes for beneficial applications. Various separation and partitioning studies are currently in progress. Following a waste solidification application, the solid waste can be easily consolidated using hot-pressing techniques into an apparently stable but complex ceramic waste form. The entire process has been successfully demonstrated with fully radioactive reactor wastes. Characterization studies have shown the detailed structure of the final waste form and its thermal/chemical behavior to be complex. These results suggest that detailed characterization studies are necessary for any waste form and that extreme care must be taken when extrapolating data to long times. 6 fig