Cement As a Waste Form for Nuclear Fission Products: The Case of 90Sr and Its Daughters [Cement As a Container for Nuclear Fission Products: The Case of 90Sr and Its Daughters]
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); MultiScale Material Science for Energy and Environment, Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Queen's Univ. Belfast, Belfast (United Kingdom)
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); MultiScale Material Science for Energy and Environment, Cambridge, MA (United States); Aix-Marseille Univ., Marseille cedex (France)
One of the main challenges faced by the nuclear industry is the long-term confinement of nuclear waste. Because it is inexpensive and easy to manufacture, cement is the material of choice to store large volumes of radioactive materials, in particular the low-level medium-lived fission products. It is therefore of utmost importance to assess the chemical and structural stability of cement containing radioactive species. Here, we use ab initio calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) to study the effects of 90Sr insertion and decay in C–S–H (calcium-silicate-hydrate) in order to test the ability of cement to trap and hold this radioactive fission product and to investigate the consequences of its β-decay on the cement paste structure. We show that 90Sr is stable when it substitutes the Ca2+ ions in C–S–H, and so is its daughter nucleus 90Y after β-decay. Interestingly, 90Zr, daughter of 90Y and final product in the decay sequence, is found to be unstable compared to the bulk phase of the element at zero K but stable when compared to the solvated ion in water. Furthermore, cement appears as a suitable waste form for 90Sr storage.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Energy Dissipation to Defect Evolution (EDDE)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344; AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1377788
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-JRNL-736176
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 49, Issue 22; ISSN 0013-936X
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
Removal of strontium from aqueous solutions by sodium dodecyl sulfate-modified palygorskite
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journal | May 2019 |
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