Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Melting and draining tests on glass waste form for the immobilization of Cs, Sr, and rare-earth nuclides using a cold-crucible induction melting system

  • Choi, Jung-Hoon (Radioactive Waste Treatment Research Team, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) ;
  • Lee, Byeonggwan (Radioactive Waste Treatment Research Team, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) ;
  • Lee, Ki-Rak (Radioactive Waste Treatment Research Team, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) ;
  • Kang, Hyun Woo (Radioactive Waste Treatment Research Team, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) ;
  • Eom, Hyeon Jin (Radioactive Waste Treatment Research Team, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) ;
  • Park, Hwan-Seo (Radioactive Waste Treatment Research Team, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)
  • Received : 2021.05.25
  • Accepted : 2021.09.30
  • Published : 2022.04.25
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Abstract

Cold-crucible induction melting (CCIM) technology has been intensively studied as an advanced vitrification process for the immobilization of highly radioactive waste. This technology uses high-frequency induction to melt a glass matrix and waste, while the outer surface of the crucible is water-cooled, resulting in the formation of a frozen glass layer (skull). In this study, for the fabrication of borosilicate glass waste form, CCIM operation test with 60 kg of glass per batch was conducted using surrogate wastes composed of Cs, Sr, and Nd as a representative of highly radioactive nuclides generated during spent nuclear fuel management. A 60 kg-scale glass waste form was successfully fabricated through melting and draining processes using a CCIM system, and its physicochemical properties were analyzed. In particular, to enhance the controllability and reliability of the draining process, an air-cooling drain control method that can control draining through air-cooling near drain holes was developed, and its validity for draining control was verified. The method can offer controllability on various draining processes, such as molten salt or molten metal draining processes, and can be applied to a process requiring high throughput draining.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (NRF-2021M2E3A1040061).

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