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U.S. Department of Energy
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Synroc Waste-forms for Immobilization of Advanced Reprocessing Wastes - 16167

Conference ·
OSTI ID:22838047
; ; ;  [1]; ; ;  [2];  [3]
  1. Centre for Nuclear Engineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom)
  2. Institute of Materials Engineering, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization - ANSTO, Kirrawee, NSW 2232 (Australia)
  3. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052 (Australia)

EURO-GANEX, an advanced reprocessing technology, aims to separate both major (U, Pu) and minor (Np, Am, and Cm) actinides together from fission products. As the final waste composition is free from actinides - as opposed to current process waste, e.g. from PUREX - adapted immobilization matrices need to be developed. Synroc is a potential wasteform that has proven itself to be efficient to immobilize high-level nuclear wastes (HLW). In this study, a new composition of Synroc, 'Synroc-Z', is designed and characterized. The primary modification is to reduce the amount of zirconolite phase, which acts as the main host for actinides. The optimum hot-press conditions for Synroc-Z samples with a waste loading of 20 wt% were determined to be: 1200 deg. C and 20 MPa for 3 h. The durability of Synroc-Z was examined via the MCC-1 test at 90 deg. C. It shows similar leach resistance to Synroc-C, which is much better than current glass waste-forms. (authors)

Research Organization:
WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
OSTI ID:
22838047
Report Number(s):
INIS-US--19-WM-16167
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English