Properties of Plutonium-Containing Colloids Released from Glass-Bonded Sodalite Nuclear Waste Form

Conference · Mon Oct 11 04:00:00 EDT 2004

OSTI ID:1008881

Morss, L R; Mertz, C J; Kropf, A J; Holly, J L

In glass-bonded sodalite, which is the ceramic waste form (CWF) to immobilize radioactive electrorefiner salt from spent metallic reactor fuel, uranium and plutonium are found as 20-50 nm (U,Pu)O{sub 2} particles encapsulated in glass near glass-sodalite phase boundaries. In order to determine whether the (U,Pu)O{sub 2} affects the durability of the CWF, and to determine release behavior of uranium and plutonium during CWF corrosion, tests were conducted to measure the release of matrix and radioactive elements from crushed CWF samples into water and the properties of released plutonium. Released colloids have been characterized by sequential filtration of test solutions followed by elemental analysis, dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. This paper reports the composition, size, and agglomeration of these colloids. Significant amounts of colloidal, amorphous aluminosilicates and smaller amounts of colloidal crystalline (U,Pu)O{sub 2} were identified in test solutions. The normalized releases of uranium and plutonium were significantly less than the normalized releases of matrix elements.

• Research Organization: Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 1008881
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: ENGLISH

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ABSORPTION SPECTROSCOPY
AGGLOMERATION
CERAMICS
COLLOIDS
CORROSION
FILTRATION
GLASS
LIGHT SCATTERING
MANAGEMENT
MATRIX ELEMENTS
NUCLEAR FUELS
PLUTONIUM
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
URANIUM
WASTE FORMS
WATER