iii SummaryTen glasses were prepared from high-level waste (HLW) AZ-101 simulant and additives. Eight of them were evaluated with a double crucible test for the effect of Cr, Ni, Fe, Al, Li, and RuO 2 on the accumulation rate of spinel crystals in the glass discharge riser of the HLW melter. The thicknesses of accumulated layers were incorporated into previously developed model of spinel settling (Matyáš et al. 2010a). In addition, the liquidus temperature (T L ) of glasses was measured and their crystallinity in mass % of spinel determined for heat-treatments at various temperatures for 24 h. The remaining two glass compositions enriched with Rh 2 O 3 and RuO 2 were investigated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray tomography for agglomeration of particles and impact of agglomerates on accumulation rate.The experimental study of spinel accumulation indicated that high concentrations of spinel-forming constituents in the glass can produce settling layers of a few cm thick in a few weeks. An excessive agglomeration of spinel in high-Ni-Fe glass (Ni1.5/Fe17.5) with agglomerates bigger than 500 µm resulted in the accumulation rate ~53.8 µm/h, which will produce ~2.6 cm thick layer in just 20 days of melter idling and can potentially plug the riser. Can noble metals decrease significantly this accumulation rate? There is an indication that they can. Additions of RuO 2 (in the form of ruthenium nitrosyl nitrate) to high-Ni glass (Ni1.5) effectively slowed down or stopped the spinel accumulation because of their effect on decreasing the average crystal size below 10 µm. Can the accumulation of thick but noncompacted spinel layer prevent the plugging of the riser? Maybe it can. Then, the additions of Al 2 O 3 and Li 2 O to glasses containing high concentration of spinel constituents might be the way. These components slowed down the growth of individual crystals but promoted the formation of a dendritic network of large needle-like spinel structures, which resulted in the non-compacted layers. There is a reasonable chance that spinel crystals locked in this configuration can be removed with glass during the pouring into canister.The previously developed model (Matyáš et al. 2010a) predicts well, R 2 = 0.981, the accumulation of crystals in the glasses with no or small-scale agglomeration, in which spinel settles as individual crystals and/or as clusters of a few crystals. But, in the case of excessive agglomeration, observed in the Ni1.5/Fe17.5 glass, the model under predicts the thicknesses of deposited layers. This under prediction was getting gradually worse with time as an increased number of larger agglomerates formed. Another factor that was not depicted by the model and that affected greatly the accumulation of spinel was the formation of 3D network of spinel needle-like structures in the Ni1.5/Al10 and Ni1.5/Li.38 glasses, which prevented a formation of a dense settled layer.The T L 's of tested glasses as determined with optical microscopy was between 950 to 1105°C. We have also measured the mass ...
Historically, high-level waste (HL W) glasses have been formulated with a low liquidus temperature (T L), or temperature at which the equilibrium fraction of spinel crystals in the melt is below 1 vol % (TOOl), nominally below 1050°C. These constraints cannot prevent the accumulation of large spinel crystals in considerably cooler regions (~ 850°C) of the glass discharge riser during me Iter idling and significantly limit the waste loading, which is reflected in a high volume of waste glass, and would result in high capital, production, and disposal costs. A developed empirical model predicts crystal accumulation in the riser of the melter as a function of concentration of spinel-forming components in glass, and thereby provides guidance in formulating crystal-tolerant glasses that would allow high waste loadings by keeping the spinel crystals small and therefore suspended in the glass.
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