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Title: ITEAM - An international mechanistic approach to modeling glass behavior over geologic time scales - 15527

Conference ·
OSTI ID:22824411
 [1]
  1. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (United States)

Vitrification is a common worldwide solution for radioactive waste immobilization. Although the excellent chemical durability of glass has been demonstrated in ancient man-made and natural analogues, the lack of an international consensus on a glass corrosion rate law limits the application of glass in high-level waste repository performance models. The contributions of physical and chemical processes controlling the long-term glass dissolution rate in geologic disposal remain uncertain resulting in this non-consensus. A thorough mechanistic understanding of waste form durability in geologic environments would improve public and regulator confidence. In addition, this understanding could lead to cost savings if it becomes possible to take credit for the true durability of the waste form itself in system evaluations rather than requiring expensive engineered barrier systems. To this end, five nations (US, UK, France, Japan, and Belgium) have joined together to formulate a joint plan for collaborative research into the mechanisms controlling the long-term corrosion of glass. Over the last five years, the coordinated research performed by these countries has produced a new level of understanding about the glass corrosion mechanisms, specifically as they apply to glasses similar in composition to the French R7T7 glass. Some recent results are presented as they relate to several mechanisms that are thought to control glass alteration at long time periods. It is important to understand the effects of each particular mechanism on the overall radionuclide release and the relative importance of each process model to the performance assessment calculation. In addition, a new series of experiments calls out potential sources of error due to the use of irregular shapes (such as crushed glass powder) in dissolution experiments. (authors)

Research Organization:
WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
OSTI ID:
22824411
Report Number(s):
INIS-US-19-WM-15527; TRN: US19V0984069457
Resource Relation:
Conference: WM2015: Annual Waste Management Symposium, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 15-19 Mar 2015; Other Information: Country of input: France; 28 refs.; available online at: http://archive.wmsym.org/2015/index.html
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English