Thorium and cerium chemical behaviour in ion-irradiated alkali-borosilicate glasses

Structural evolution of CeO2-doped alkali boroaluminosilicate glass and the correlation with physical properties based on a revised structural parameter analysis

“…20,21 Structure studies relating to borosilicate glass modied by metal oxides such as cadmium oxide, 7 Bi 2 O 3 , 8 SrO, 22 PbO 9 for radiation resistance purposes have been widely conducted, whereas CeO 2 is sometimes involved just as a non-radioactive surrogate to simulate the presence of minor actinides in nuclear glasses. 23,24 Even so, understanding the structure-property correlations of cerium-containing borosilicate glass especially for complex multi-component system remains limited, for example, recent reviews on borate and borosilicate glasses have comprehensively summarized the effects of different additives but unfortunately without mentioning cerium. 25,26 More importantly, the role cerium plays in glass structure so far remains debatable.…”

Crystal chemistry of Th in fluorapatite

“…Extended X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy (EXAFS) is used to obtain quantitative information about the local structure of Th in both natural and synthetic fluorapatite, which includes site preference, nearneighbor distances, and coordination numbers. Thorium has been frequently used as a model for other tetravalent actinides in laboratory studies (Krauskopf 1986;Terra et al 2006;Trocellier et al 2006). Thus, understanding the mechanism of incorporation and the structural response of fluorapatite to Th is useful in assessing apatite as a possible host for other tetravalent radionuclides, engineering novel, and better-lasting solid nuclear waste forms and for understanding the behavior of Th in geological systems where fluorapatite is present.…”

Ion irradiation behaviour and chemical durability of simple borosilicate glasses

“…The characterization of glass samples after leaching is essentially based on the coupling of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron microprobe analysis with Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), elastic recoil spectrometry (ERDA) and X-ray induced emission (HeIXE) in order to compare the evolution of the chemical composition of the near surface region of glasses. The experimental configuration has been detailed elsewhere [4][5][6]. Leachates have been analysed using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES).…”