To minimize the radiological risk from the operation of a waste management system for the safe disposal of high-level waste, performance characteristics of the solidified waste form must be specified. The minimum waste form characteristics that must be specified are the radionuclide volatilization fraction, airborne particulate dispersion fraction, and the aqueous dissolution characteristics. The results indicate that the pre-emplacement environs are more limiting in establishing the waste form performance criteria than the post-emplacement environs. The actual values of expected risk are sensitive to modeling assumptions and data base uncertainties. The transportation step appears to be the most limiting in determining the required performance characteristics.

The objectives of the program are to conduct tests that will characterize the behavior of sodium oxide, fuel, fission product, and other aerosols as they might be generated by various postulated LMFBR accidents; determine by analysis and confirm by experiment the generation and transport of these aerosols with respect to source (location, type, and configuration), for the entire course of events associated with real and hypothetical accident conditions; and conduct tests that will determine the effect of molten fuel on reactor structural or sacrificial material.