Effects of Hanford Tank Simulant Waste on Plastic Packaging Components•

The purpose of hazardous and radioactive materials packaging is to enable these materials to be transported without posing a threat to the health or property of the general public. To achieve this aim, regulations in the United States have been written establishing general design requirements for such packagings. While no regulations have been written specifically for mixed waste packaging, regulations for the constituents of mixed wastes, i.e., hazardous and radioactive substances, have been codified by the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT, 49 CFR 173) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, 10 CFR 71). The design requirements for both hazardous [49 CFR 173.24 (e)( I)] and radioactive [49 CFR 173.412 (g)] materials packaging specify packaging compatibility, i.e., that the materials of the packaging and any contents be chemically compatible with each other. Furthermore, Type A [49 CFR 173.412 (g)] and Type B (10 CFR 71.43) packaging design requirements stipulate that there be no significant chemical, galvanic, or other reaction between the materials and contents of the package. Based on these national requirements, a Chemical Compatibility Testing Program was developed in the Transportation Systems Department at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). The program attempts to assure any regulatory body that the issue of packaging material compatibility towards hazardous and radioactive materials has been addressed. This program has been described in considerable detail in an internal SNL document, Chemical Compatibility Test Plan & Procedure Report (Nigrey 1993), and in a companion paper (Nigrey 1995) at this conference. In this paper, we present the results of the second phase of this testing program. This phase involved the comprehensive testing of five candidate liner materials to an aqueous Hanford Tank sirnulant mixed waste. The comprehensive testing protocol involved exposing the respective materials a matrix of four gamma radiation doses ( -1.4, 2.9, 5.7, and 37 kGy), three temperatures (18, 50, and 60°C), and four exposure times (7, 14, 28, and 180 days). Following their exposure to these combinations of conditions, the materials were evaluated by measuring five material properties. These properties were specific gravity, dimensional changes, hardness, stress cracking, and mechanical properties.