Radiation Damage Effects in Candidate Ceramics for Plutonium Immobilization: Final Report

Abstract

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Leach resistance of murataite-based ceramics containing actinides

“…241 Am was present in the PuO 2 used for specimen preparation as an impurity in the amount of 0.1 wt.%. Leach resistance of the ceramics in deionized water at 90 • C was studied by MCC-1 [6] and single-pass-flow-through (SPFT) [7] tests.…”

Radiation damage effects in candidate titanates for Pu disposition: Zirconolite

“…The latter were developed to accomodate the chemical variability in the Pu feed to a proposed immobilization plant. We also report on the chemical durabilty of the zirconolite phase and compare it with the pyrochlore phase reported in our previous paper [1].…”

“…The dissolution of these materials in water was studied with a single-pass flow-through apparatus described in earlier articles [1,21,22]. In the experiments described here, we used both Teflon Ò and titanium apparatus to show that the dissolution apparatus did not affect the value of the dissolution rate obtained.…”

“…Introductory material has been presented in a previous paper [1] and is not repeated here. In a previous article [1], we discussed the effects of radiation-induced damage on one of the main crystalline phases, pyrochlore (betafite), in the ceramics that were developed for the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium.…”

“…Introductory material has been presented in a previous paper [1] and is not repeated here. In a previous article [1], we discussed the effects of radiation-induced damage on one of the main crystalline phases, pyrochlore (betafite), in the ceramics that were developed for the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium. In this article, we discuss the effects of radiation-induced damage on the other main crystalline phase, zirconolite (ideally CaZrTi 2 O 7 ), that was also being developed as a phase in which to sequester Pu from surplus nuclear weapons.…”