Sodalite as a vehicle to increase Re retention in waste glass simulant during vitrification

Journal Article · Sat Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of Nuclear Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2016.07.002· OSTI ID:1340830

Luksic, Steven A.; Riley, Brian J.; Parker, Kent E.; Hrma, Pavel

Technetium retention during Hanford waste vitrification can be increased by inhibiting technetium volatility from the waste glass melter. Incorporating technetium into a mineral phase, such as sodalite, is one way to achieve this. Rhenium-bearing sodalite was tested as a vehicle to transport perrhenate (ReO4-), a nonradioactive surrogate for pertechnetate (TcO4-), into high-level (HLW) and low-activity waste (LAW) glasses. After melting feeds of these two glasses, the retention of rhenium was measured and compared with the rhenium retention in glass prepared from a feed containing Re2O7 as a standard. The rhenium retention was 21% higher for HLW glass and 85% higher for LAW glass when added to samples in the form of sodalite as opposed to when it was added as Re2O7, demonstrating the efficacy of this type of an approach.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1340830
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-111510; 830403000
• Journal Information: Journal of Nuclear Materials, Journal Name: Journal of Nuclear Materials Vol. 479; ISSN 0022-3115
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

rhenium
technetium
vitrification