Development of a West Valley Nuclear Waste Glass by Empirical Modeling

The first full-scale conversion of high-level commercial U.S. nuclear wastes to a glass suitable for long-term storage and disposal will be conducted at West Valley, Now York. The development of a nuclear waste glass for this demonstration project utilized a statistically designed study that led to empirical models of melt viscosity, electrical conductivity, crystallinity, and chemical durability as functions of glass composition. The method by which the candidate glass composition was chosen using these models is described, and the adjustments to the candidate composition in response to the evolving plant design are discussed.