Glass binder development for a glass-bonded sodalite ceramic waste form

Journal Article · 01 June 2017 · Journal of Nuclear Materials

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2017.03.041 · OSTI ID:1349076

Riley, Brian J.; Vienna, John D.; Frank, Steven M. ; Kroll, Jared O.; Peterson, Jacob A.; Canfield, Nathan L.; Zhu, Zihua ; Zhang, Jiandong; Kruska, Karen ; Schreiber, Daniel K.; Crum, Jarrod V.

This paper discusses work to develop Na₂O-B₂O₃-SiO₂ glass binders for immobilizing LiCl-KCl eutectic salt waste in a glass-bonded sodalite waste form following electrochemical reprocessing of used metallic nuclear fuel. In this paper, five new glasses with ~20 mass% Na₂O were designed to generate waste forms with high sodalite. The glasses were then used to produce ceramic waste forms with a surrogate salt waste. The waste forms made using these new glasses were formulated to generate more sodalite than those made with previous baseline glasses for this type of waste. The coefficients of thermal expansion for the glass phase in the glass-bonded sodalite waste forms made with the new binder glasses were closer to the sodalite phase in the critical temperature region near and below the glass transition temperature than previous binder glasses used. Finally, these improvements should result in lower probability of cracking in the full-scale monolithic ceramic waste form, leading to better long-term chemical durability.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Reactor Fleet and Advanced Reactor Development. Office of Nuclear Energy Technologies
• Contributing Organization: Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830; 48708
• OSTI ID: 1349076
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1419553
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-123338; PII: S0022311517301563; TRN: US1700521
• Journal Information: Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 489, Issue C; ISSN 0022-3115
• Publisher: ElsevierCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English