Impact of alpha-recoil damage on dissolution of thoriated glass
- Technion-Israel Inst. of Tech., Haifa (Israel). Dept. of Chemistry
- Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States). Dept. of Geology
Reaction of a seventeen-year old borosilicate glass containing 4 wt% ThO{sub 2} with a bicarbonate-carbonate solution was investigated for times from a few minutes up to approximately one year. For the untreated glass, the initial 228-Th leach rate was enhanced relative to the initial 232-Th leach rate by 15--45%. This incongruent dissolution occurs due to the selective removal of radiogenic 228-Th nuclides from 228-Ra-recoil tracks, damaged regions in the aperiodic glass. Heating the glass at 650 C in air prior to leaching eliminates the 228-Th/232-Th fractionation. Similar enhanced dissolution of alpha-decay products may occur in nuclear waste glasses/groundwater systems; thus, actinide-containing glasses should be examined for alpha-recoil damage effects in order to insure satisfactory prediction of the long-term release of actinides from the nuclear waste glass.
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG04-84ER45099
- OSTI ID:
- 100790
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-930906--; ISBN 0-7918-0691-X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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