Plutonium-238 Alpha-Decay Damage Study of A Glass-Bonded Sodalite Ceramic Waste Form

Frank, S. M.; DiSanto, T; Goff, K. M.; Johnson, S. G.; Jue, JF; Barber, T. L.; Noy, M; O’Holleran, T. P.; Giglio, Jeffrey J.

doi:10.1520/stp37590s

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…Lambregts and Frank (2002and Frank ( , 2003 a Salt composition after processing used sodium-bonded fuel from 300 EBR-II driver assemblies. on a molar basis (i.e., about 0.13 moles salt per 100 g CWF).…”

Section: Cscl-enriched Salt Wastementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Small amounts of other phases that are present in the SLZ or form during processing become dispersed in the molten glass and are microencapsulated when the waste form is cooled. These include lanthanide and actinide elements in the salt that react with residual water in the zeolite 4A to form mixed oxides during the salt occlusion step, silicates from the clay used to aggregate the zeolite, and halite that forms during processing (e.g., Frank 2002, Morss et al 2002a, Morss et al 2002b. The term "glass-bonded sodalite" describes the phase composition and microstructure of the CWF.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Designing Advanced Ceramic Waste Forms for Electrochemical Processing Salt Waste

Ebert

Snyder

Frank

et al. 2016

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This report describes the scientific basis underlying the approach being followed to design and develop "advanced" glass-bonded sodalite ceramic waste form (ACWF) materials that can (1) accommodate higher salt waste loadings than the waste form developed in the 1990s for EBR-II waste salt and (2) provide greater flexibility for immobilizing extreme waste salt compositions. This is accomplished by using a binder glass having a much higher Na 2 O content than glass compositions used previously to provide enough Na + to react with all of the Clin the waste salt and generate the maximum amount of sodalite. The phase compositions and degradation behaviors of prototype ACWF products that were made using five new binder glass formulations and with 11-14 mass% representative LiCl/KCl-based salt waste were evaluated and compared with results of similar tests run with CWF products made using the original binder glass with 8 mass% of the same salt to demonstrate the approach and select a composition for further studies. About twice the amount of sodalite was generated in all ACWF materials and the microstructures and degradation behaviors confirmed our understanding of the reactions occurring during waste form production and the efficacy of the approach. However, the porosities of the resulting ACWF materials were higher than is desired. These results indicate the capacity of these ACWF waste forms to accommodate LiCl/KCl-based salt wastes becomes limited by porosity due to the low glass-to-sodalite volume ratio. Three of the new binder glass compositions were acceptable and there is no benefit to further increasing the Na content as initially planned. Instead, further studies are needed to develop and evaluate alternative production methods to decrease the porosity, such as by increasing the amount of binder glass in the formulation or by processing waste forms in a hot isostatic press. Increasing the amount of binder glass to eliminate porosity will decrease the waste loading from about 12% to 10% on a mass basis, but this will not significantly impact the waste loading on a volume basis. It is likely that heat output will limit the amount of waste salt that can be accommodated in a waste canister rather than the salt loading in an ACWF, and that the increase from 8 mass% to about 10 mass% salt loadings in ACWF materials will be sufficient to optimize these waste forms. Although the waste salt composition used in this study contained a moderate amount of NaCl, the test results suggest waste salts with little or no NaCl can be accommodated in ACWF materials by using the new binder glass, albeit at waste loadings lower than 8 mass%. The higher glass contents that will be required for ACWF materials made with salt wastes that do not contain NaCl are expected to result in much lower porosities in those waste forms.

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Section: Cscl-enriched Salt Wastementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%