Plutonium Immobilization Project - Cold Pour Phase 2 Test Results

The U.S. Department of Energy will immobilize excess plutonium in the proposed Plutonium Immobilization Plant (PIP) at the Savannah River site (SRS) as part of a two-track approach for dispositioning weapons-usable plutonium. The Department of Energy is funding the development and testing effort for the PIP being conducted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. PIP is developing the ''Can-in Canister'' (CIC) technology that immobilizes plutonium by encapsulating it in ceramic forms (or pucks) and ultimately surrounding the forms with high-level waste glass to provide a deterrent to recovery. A cold (non-radioactive) test program was conducted to develop and verify the baseline design for the canister and internal hardware. Tests were conducted in two phases. Phase 1 Cold Pour Tests, conducted in 1999, were scoping tests. This paper describes the Phase 2 tests conducted in 2000 that verified the adequacy of the baseline and demonstrated compliance with repository requirements