Evaluation of Plutonium Oxide Destructive Chemical Analyses for Validity of Original 3013 Container Binning

The surveillance program for 3013 containers is based, in part,on the separation of containers into various bins related to potentialcontainer failure mechanisms. The containers are assignedto bins based on moisture content and pre-storage estimates ofcontent chemistry. While moisture content is measured duringthe packaging of each container, chemistry estimates are made byusing a combination of process knowledge, packaging data andprompt gamma analyses to establish the moisture and chloride/fluoride content of the materials. Packages with high moistureand chloride/fluoride contents receive more detailed surveillancesthan packages with less chloride/fluoride and/or moisture. Moistureverification measurements and chemical analyses performedduring the surveillance program provided an opportunity to validatethe binning process. Validation results demonstrated that thebinning effort was generally successful in placing the containersin the appropriate bin for surveillance and analysis.