Impact of Phase Separation on Waste Glass Durability
Phase separation in nuclear waste glasses has an adverse effect on glass durability. Phase separation in glasses generally takes the form of two immiscible glass phases which differ in chemical composition, density, and surface tension. Usually one phase is more soluble than the other. Phase separation complicates modeling of glass durability as a function of composition because the composition of the overall glass is known but the compositions of the two immiscible phases is not known: the performance of the overall glass is unpredictable and the long term durability of the glass can not be modeled. A discriminate analysis of 110 homogeneous and phase separated waste glasses allowed a ''phase separation discriminate function'' to be defined. The discriminate function is calculated based on glass oxide wt percent and compositionally differentiates between immiscible phases of different density. The discriminate function is defined in 14 component composition space although greater than 95 percent of the glass chemistry is dominated by seven major components (Na2O- K2O-Li2O-SiO2-Al2O3-B2O3-Fe2O3). The compositionally dependent discriminator function is used to eliminate phase separated glasses from being processed in the Savannah River Site (SRS) Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). All glasses produced are homogeneous and thus have predictable long term durability.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC09-96SR18500
- OSTI ID:
- 15031
- Report Number(s):
- WSRC-MS-99-00333, Rev. 1; TRN: US0204506
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: American Ceramic Society, Indianapolis, IN (US), 05/01/1999--05/04/1999; Other Information: PBD: 29 Nov 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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