Forty years of durability assessment of nuclear waste glass by standard methods

Abstract

Standard methods to assess the durability of vitrified radioactive waste were first developed in the 1980’s and, over the last 40 years, have evolved to yield a range of responses depending on experimental conditions and glass composition. Mechanistic understanding of glass dissolution has progressed in parallel, enhancing our interpretation of the data acquired. With the implementation of subsurface disposal for vitrified radioactive waste drawing closer, it is timely to review the available standard methodologies and reflect upon their relative advantages, limitations, and how the data obtained can be interpreted to support the post-closure safety case for radioactive waste disposal.

Surface and subsurface alterations in freshly fractured and corroded soda‐lime float glass

“…Degradation of the glasses is induced in varied conditions such as electrical potential, 17 electron irradiation, 18,19 acid leaching, 20 nuclear waste, 2,21,22 and high humidity and temperature, 23,24 etc. Surface indentation study of crystalline SiO 2 wafer and its amorphous form shows enhanced degrading behavior in a humid environment and reduced degradation in an alcoholic environment.…”

Predicting initial dissolution rates using structural features from molecular dynamics simulations

“…[12][13][14][15][16][17] In this paper, we focus on quantifying the relationship between glass structure and initial dissolution rate (r 0 , also commonly known as forward rate), where the rate is mostly dependent on glass composition, temperature, and pH, as compared to the residual or resumption rate which are strongly affected by near field materials and solution feedback. Note that an effort has been made to distinguish initial dissolution rate and forward rate by Thorpe et al, 18 where forward rate has no solution feedback as it is measured in flow-through conditions or very dilute conditions, initial dissolution rates are measured at early reaction progress before solution feedback is measurable with changing solution pH being acceptable. By this definition, the rates discussed in this paper are initial dissolution rates.…”

Effect of network connectivity on behavior of synthetic Broborg hillfort glasses

“…It must also be stated that the chemical durability of glasses is not only a function of glass composition but is also by environmental parameters, such as site hydrology, solution pH, and solution composition 24–29 …”

“…It must also be stated that the chemical durability of glasses is not only a function of glass composition but is also by environmental parameters, such as site hydrology, solution pH, and solution composition. [24][25][26][27][28][29] To study the relative durability of the glasses with different iron redox chemistries, glass powders were altered using a 90 • C static alteration test for up to 100 days. This method was previously used to alter samples from the Broborg hillfort and compare the alteration features to excavated samples.…”