Nuclear Waste Glass Durability: I, Predicting Environmental Response from Thermodynamic (Pourbaix) Diagrams
- Du Pont de Nemours (E.I.) and Co., Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River Lab.
Pourbaix diagrams are shown to conceptually explain dissolution of glasses in terms of their thermodynamic stability and surface layer formation. To predict the long-term effects of ground-water contact on the durability of nuclear waste glass in a geologic repository, the nature of the glass dissolution process has been extensively examined. Hydration thermodynamics has been used to quantify the role of glass composition and the effect of solution pH. The glass compositions examined vary widely in composition and include natural, lunar, medieval, and nuclear waste glasses, as well as some glass-ceramics. The known effects of solution pH and oxidation potential (Eh) on glass dissolution are empirically described by thermodynamically calculated Pourbaix diagrams. Statistical analysis of over 300 glass durability tests demonstrates that the Pourbaix diagram can be quantified because of (1) the colinearity of the hydration free energy with solution pH defined by the Nernst equation and (2) the colinearity of the solution pH with the concentration of dissolved silicon and boron in the solution defined by the pH dependence of the ion activities. Construction of Pourbaix diagrams to describe glass dissolution serves to unify and categorize various existing experimental glass dissolution data.
- Research Organization:
- Du Pont de Nemours (E.I.) and Co., Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River Lab.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC09-89SR18035; AC09-76SR00001
- OSTI ID:
- 6171408
- Report Number(s):
- DP-MS-87-2-Rev.1; CONF-870422-14-Rev.1; ON: DE91009320
- Journal Information:
- Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol. 75, Issue 9; Conference: 89. Annual Meeting of the American Ceramic Society, Pittsburgh, PA (United States), 26-30 Apr 1987; ISSN 0002-7820
- Publisher:
- American Ceramic Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
GLASS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
DISSOLUTION
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
VITRIFICATION
WASTE FORMS
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
GROUND WATER
HYDRATION
LEACHATES
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PH VALUE
REDOX POTENTIAL
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
WEATHERING
DISPERSIONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICS
MIXTURES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SIMULATION
SOLUTIONS
SOLVATION
STATISTICS
TESTING
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WATER
360604* - Materials- Corrosion
Erosion
& Degradation
052002 - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Disposal & Storage
360603 - Materials- Properties