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E. R. Vance coauthored research on the crystal chemistry and phase control of Synroc. The scientific problem is to distribute waste elements among stable ceramic phases with suitable crystal sites.

Changing the overall composition can change which phases form and which ions each phase incorporates. This links phase equilibrium and crystal structure to the chemical durability of a waste form.^[ref]

Synroc immobilises waste ions in selected durable crystalline hosts, rather than trying to put the whole inventory into one universal site. The underlying philosophy is that minerals retaining analogous elements over geological times suggest useful crystal structures for engineered containment. These natural analogues motivate the choice; their survival does not prove that every synthetic composition, damaged microstructure or groundwater environment will behave identically. This was the rationale of the original mineral-analogue proposal.^[ref]

A representative Synroc-C assemblage includes zirconolite, $\mathrm{CaZrT}{\mathrm{i}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$, as an actinide host; a hollandite waste-form phase, represented by $\mathrm{BaA}{\mathrm{l}}_2\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{i}}_6{\mathrm{O}}_{16}$, whose tunnels accommodate large cations such as caesium; and a perovskite waste-form phase, $\mathrm{CaTi}{\mathrm{O}}_3$, which can accept strontium on calcium sites and other constituents with suitable charge compensation in a crystal. Titanium-oxide phases provide additional accommodation and composition flexibility. The actual phases are solid solutions, not simply pure end-member minerals mixed with an inert waste powder.^[ref]

Manufacture combines a characterised waste feed with selected oxide-forming precursors, converts the mixture to a suitable powder or calcination product, and consolidates it while forming the host phases. hot pressing and hot isostatic pressing are consolidation approaches; the latter uses pressure acting approximately equally in all directions. The objective is a dense ceramic with the intended phase assemblage and low connected porosity, contained in an appropriate radioactive waste package. Verify density and phase composition, use microscopy to find segregated constituents or pores, and test leaching of the actual product. Successful densification alone does not establish radionuclide retention.^[ref]