Case Study: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory achieves cheaper, safer nuclear waste forms with Citrine Informatics

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory reduces nuclear waste volume 20x with Citrine Informatics

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory faced the challenge of current nuclear waste storage being too expensive, with waste forms that were space-inefficient and prone to hazardous leaching, mechanical failure, and thermal degradation. Their goal was to design a novel waste form with improvements in five key performance metrics. They partnered with Citrine Informatics to address this.

Citrine Informatics built a database of nuclear waste form material properties and developed machine learning models to predict strength, chemical durability, phase stability, and vitrification. This multi-objective design workflow optimized a nuclear waste glass, resulting in a greater than 2x increase in waste loading, a 20x reduction in waste volume, and improved mechanical strength, creating a cheaper and safer nuclear waste form.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory