Gas generation by pure and impure plutonium oxide materials in sealed containers.
- John M.
- Dennis D.
- Douglas Kirk
- Laura A.
- David M.
- Rhonda E.
- Dallas D.
- John S.
The Department of Energy (DOE) standard, DOE-STD-3013-2000, establishes criteria for stabilizing, packaging, and long term safe storage of plutonium-bearing materials at DOE facilities . The Standard applies to oxide or metal that contains at least 30 weight percent plutonium plus uranium. For oxide material a maximum of 5 kg of material is packaged in a nested set of two individually welded containers and the requirements include material stabilization at 950 C, 0 .5 weight percent moisture content or less, and less than nineteen watts of power per sealed container . The welded containers ensure that any gas generated due to radiolysis will be retained within the container . Although the 3013 package provides for a robust storage system, its long-term safety performance has not been demonstrated . To ensure failures do not occur while the sealed containers are being stored for up to 50 years, a DOE complex-wide integrated surveillance program has been established to measure the gas generation rates of these materials. At Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the shelf life project monitors gases over oxide materials in a limited number of large-scale 3013 inner containers charged with 5 kg of material and in many small-scale containers with 10 gram samples taken from site-wide representative materials actually being stored . The small-scale containers allow more sample types and conditions to be studied. This information provides invaluable, defensible results for assuring safe long-term storage of these materials in sealed containers . Initial results on gas generation are presented.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 976564
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-03-1194; TRN: US201017%%711
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Submitted to: Plutonium Futures - The Science Conference 2003, Albuquerque, NM, July 6-10, 2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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