Container Materials, Fabrication, and Robustness

The multi-barrier 3013 container used to package plutoniumbearingmaterials is robust and thereby highly resistant to identifieddegradation modes that might cause failure. The only viabledegradation mechanisms identified by a panel of technical expertswere pressurization within and corrosion of the containers.Evaluations of the container materials and the fabrication processesand resulting residual stresses suggest that the multi-layeredcontainers will mitigate the potential for degradation of the outercontainer and prevent the release of the container contents to theenvironment. Additionally, the ongoing surveillance programsand laboratory studies should detect any incipient degradationof containers in the 3013 storage inventory before an outer containeris compromised.