Glass-Bonded Monazite Waste Forms for Lanthanide and Actinide Immobilization: From Theoretical Design to Scale-Up Production and Characterization

Peterson, Miroslava; Riley, Brian J.; Lu, Xiaonan; Yano, Kayla H.; Mukhopadhyay, Semanti; Leavy, Ian I.; Nickerson, Ethan K.; Seffens, Robert J.; Du, Jincheng; Miller, Kyle D.; Saal, James E.

doi:10.1021/acsomega.5c03993

Title: Glass-Bonded Monazite Waste Forms for Lanthanide and Actinide Immobilization: From Theoretical Design to Scale-Up Production and Characterization

Journal Article · Tue Jul 22 00:00:00 UTC 2025 · ACS Omega

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.5c03993 · OSTI ID:2578571

Peterson, Miroslava ^[1];

^[1]; Lu, Xiaonan ^[1];

^[1]; Mukhopadhyay, Semanti ^[1]; Leavy, Ian I. ^[1]; Nickerson, Ethan K. ^[1]; Seffens, Robert J. ^[1];

^[2]; Miller, Kyle D. ^[3];

^[3]

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Univ. of North Texas, Denton, TX (United States)
Citrine Informatics, Redwood City, CA (United States)

The development of nuclear waste forms for both existing and future nuclear wastes is critical to ensuring global environmental safety. This study focuses on waste management from molten salt reactors, where fuel exists in a salt form and could be processed in real time for the removal of neutron poisons such as xenon isotopes (e.g., ¹³⁵Xe) and rare earth elements (REEs, e.g., ¹⁴⁹Sm). To ensure safe, stable, and long-term disposal in geological repositories, REEs must be incorporated into a durable waste form. Iron-phosphate glasses are a promising candidate due to their low melting points, high chemical durability, and their ability to incorporate high concentrations of REEs. In this study, we successfully prepared iron-phosphate glass waste forms with high Nd loadings (up to 37 mass %) in batch sizes ranging from small (23 g) to large (1600 g). The resulting materials contained up to 75 mass % NdPO₄, contributing to their mechanical resilience and exceptional chemical durability. These findings highlight the potential of iron-phosphate glasses as high-efficiency, chemically durable waste forms and demonstrate the successful transition from theoretical design to scaled-up production.

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Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830; AR0001613

OSTI ID:: 2578571

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA--210238

Journal Information:: ACS Omega, Journal Name: ACS Omega Journal Issue: 30 Vol. 10; ISSN 2470-1343

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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