US field testing programs and results

The US has been active in four major international in situ or field testing programs over the past two decades, involving the burial of simulated high-level waste forms and package components. These joint international efforts include: (1) burial of over 100 simulated Savannah River Site (SRS) high-level waste glass samples in the granite site at Stripa in Sweden, (2) burial of SRS glasses in clay at Mol, Belgium, (3) in situ testing of SRS waste forms and natural glass analogs in limestone at Ballidon in the UK, and (4) field testing of almost 2000 SRS and international waste form samples and package components in the salt site at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in the US. These programs are designed to supplement laboratory testing studies in order to obtain the most complete and realistic picture possible of waste glass behavior under realistic repository-relevant conditions. Waste glass performance thus far has been seen to be very good, and even better in the field than would be predicted by many so-called standardized laboratory leaching tests.