Safeguards Termination Limits on Immobilized Nuclear Material

This paper provides a technical justification for the safeguards termination limit (STL) for immobilized nuclear materials being established at 5% special nuclear material (SNM) by weight, as so stated in recent Office of Safeguards and Security (OSS) guidance on this subject. assessing the appropriateness of the STL in terms of environmentally sound storage of vitrified waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, near Carlsbad, N.M., and the use of this STL as ceilings under which individual sites may operate their vitrification plants based upon process limitations, disposal criteria, and transport criteria. It is also important that STLs in general accommodate current disposition plans for excess fissile material, particularly plutonium.