National Academies Press: OpenBook
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×

Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop

Steering Committee on Vitrification of Radioactive Wastes

Board on Radioactive Waste Management

Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources

National Research Council

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C. 1996

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the steering committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by the Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.

Support for this study was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FC01-94EW54069. All opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Energy.

International Standard Book Number ISBN 0-309-05682-9

Additional copies of this report are available from:

Board on Radioactive Waste Management

2101 Constitution Avenue, NW

Harris Building, Room 456

Washington, DC 20418

202-334-3066

Copyright 1996 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Cover art: Glass making is one of the oldest technologies in the production of a material for human use. The object on the cover is a slide of a Roman glass bottle from the first to third centuries A.D. The bottle is from the National Collections, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Special thanks to Gus Van Beek, Near Eastern Archeologist.

Printed in the United States of America

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×

STEERING COMMITTEE ON VITRIFICATION OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES

RODNEY C. EWING, Chair,

University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

JOHN F. AHEARNE,

Duke University and Sigma Xi, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

ROBERT H. DOREMUS,

Rennsalaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York

ALEXANDRA NAVROTSKY,

Princeton University, New Jersey

JEAN-CLAUDE PETIT,

Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Saclay, France

RAYMOND G. WYMER,

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (retired), Tennessee

NRC Staff

ROBERT S. ANDREWS, Study Director

THOMAS M. USSELMAN, Study Director

REBECCA BURKA, Senior Project Assistant

DENNIS DUPREE, Senior Project Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×

BOARD ON RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT

MICHAEL C. KAVANAUGH, Chair,

ENVIRON Corporation, Emeryville, California

B. JOHN GARRICK, Vice-Chair,

PLG, Inc., Newport Beach, California

JOHN F. AHEARNE,

Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, and Duke University, Research Triangle Park and Durham, North Carolina

JEAN M. BAHR,

University of Wisconsin, Madison

SOL BURSTEIN,

Wisconsin Electric Power, Milwaukee (retired)

ANDREW P. CAPUTO,

Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, D.C.

MELVIN W. CARTER,

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta (emeritus)

PAUL P. CRAIG,

University of California, Davis (emeritus)

MARY R. ENGLISH,

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

ROBERT D. HATCHER, JR.,

The University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Knoxville and Oak Ridge

DARLEANE C. HOFFMAN,

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California

JAMES H. JOHNSON, JR.,

Howard University, Washington, D.C.

CHARLES MCCOMBIE,

NAGRA, Wettingen, Switzerland

ROBERT MEYER,

Keystone Scientific, Inc., Fort Collins, Colorado

PRISCILLA P. NELSON,

University of Texas, Austin

D. KIRK NORDSTROM,

U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, Colorado

D. WARNER NORTH,

Decision Focus, Inc., Mountain View, California

PAUL SLOVIC,

Decision Research, Eugene, Oregon

BENJAMIN L. SMITH, Independent Consultant,

Columbia, Tennessee

NRC Staff

KEVIN D. CROWLEY, Director

ROBERT S. ANDREWS, Senior Staff Officer

KARYANIL T. THOMAS, Senior Staff Officer

THOMAS E. KIESS, Staff Officer

SUSAN B. MOCKLER, Research Associate

LISA J. CLENDENING, Administrative Associate

ROBIN L. ALLEN, Senior Project Assistant

REBECCA BURKA, Senior Project Assistant

DENNIS L. DUPREE, Senior Project Assistant

PATRICIA A. JONES, Senior Project Assistant

ANGELA R. TAYLOR, Project Assistant

ERIKA L. WILLIAMS, Research Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×

COMMISSION ON GEOSCIENCES, ENVIRONMENT, AND RESOURCES

GEORGE M. HORNBERGER, Chair,

University of Virginia, Charlottesville

PATRICK R. ATKINS,

Aluminum Company of America, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

JAMES P. BRUCE,

Canadian Climate Program Board, Ottawa, Ontario

WILLIAM L. FISHER,

University of Texas, Austin

JERRY F. FRANKLIN,

University of Washington, Seattle

DEBRA KNOPMAN,

Progressive Foundation, Washington, D.C.

PERRY L. MCCARTY,

Stanford University, California

JUDITH E. MCDOWELL,

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts

S. GEORGE PHILANDER,

Princeton University, New Jersey

RAYMOND A. PRICE,

Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario

THOMAS C. SCHELLING,

University of Maryland, College Park

ELLEN SILBERGELD,

University of Maryland Medical School, Baltimore

VICTORIA J. TSCHINKEL,

Landers and Parsons, Tallahassee, Florida

NRC Staff

STEPHEN RATTIEN, Executive Director

STEPHEN D. PARKER, Associate Executive Director

MORGAN GOPNIK, Assistant Executive Director

GREGORY SYMMES, Reports Officer

JAMES MALLORY, Administrative Officer

SANDI FITZPATRICK, Administrative Associate

MARQUITA SMITH, PC Analyst & Project Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. William A. Wulf is interim president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and of advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce Alberts and Dr. William A. Wulf are the chairman and interim vice-chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×

Preface

Throughout the world, countries faced with the problems of management of radioactive waste are studying or applying the technology of vitrification to provide an acceptable waste form for long-term safe disposal. In the United States the borosilicate glass waste form has been proposed for management and disposal of radioactive defense materials such as high-level, low-level, mixed, and transuranic waste, and weapons plutonium and enriched uranium. Uncertainties concerning glass as a waste form have been raised over such issues as glass durability, radionuclide behavior in glass, glass dissolution mechanisms, chemical effects of engineered barriers over long periods of time, and extrapolation of experimental observations to full-scale repository conditions.

The National Research Council's (NRC) Board on Radioactive Waste Management (BRWM) decided to bring together experts from the international scientific and engineering community to review the current state of knowledge of glass as a waste form for the immobilization of radioactive wastes. The U.S. Department of Energy Waste Management Program provided financial support and logistical assistance for the workshop.

A committee (see Appendix A) was appointed by the NRC to organize and conduct the workshop and to prepare this report, summarizing and analyzing the information exchanged at the meeting. The workshop was held May 13-15, 1996, in the auditorium of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., and was attended by approximately 250 participants representing 12 countries. The workshop program (see Appendix B) was constructed around the following four issues (and the appropriate connections between them) that were addressed by the invited speakers:

  • Waste characteristics

  • Regulations

  • Waste form properties

  • Technologies

The steering committee prepared this report as a summary of what was discussed at the workshop. Selection of information included in the report was made by the steering committee, which tried to reflect on the tone of the workshop.

The committee gratefully acknowledges the efforts of the staff of the National Research Council in organizing the workshop and preparing the final report. We express a special thanks to Rebecca Burka for her invaluable leadership to the staff and committee members in all aspects of organization and implementation of the workshop. She was ably assisted by a team of other NRC staff, including Toni Greenleaf, Lisa Clendening, and Dennis DuPree. Julie D'Ambrosia (Envirotech Associates, Inc.) and M. John Plodenic (Westinghouse Savannah River Technology Center) provided liaison between the steering committee and the Department of Energy.

The committee particularly benefited from the efforts of Allen G. Croff of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who prepared the material in Appendix D, and Joe Perez of Pacific

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×

Northwest National Laboratory, who organized the poster session. The two rapporteurs for the concluding session of the workshop, Bruce Bunker of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Robert Budnitz of Future Resources Associates, Inc., presented invaluable summaries of the content of the workshop. Their summaries also helped shape the organization and content of this report.

Rodney C. Ewing, Chair

Steering Committee on Vitrification of Radioactive Wastes

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×
This page in the original is blank.
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×
Page R1
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×
Page R2
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×
Page R3
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×
Page R4
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×
Page R5
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×
Page R6
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×
Page R7
Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×
Page R8
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×
Page R9
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1996. Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5488.
×
Page R10
Next: Executive Summary »
Glass as a Waste Form and Vitrification Technology: Summary of an International Workshop Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $50.00
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF
  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  9. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!