• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.2366-2372
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• 2023

Are borate and silicate glasses suitable for working as shieling materials against fast neutrons? To correctly answer the above question, some silicate, and borate-based glasses were fabricated and irradiated with various doses of fast neutrons varied between 1.73 and 12.10 MGy. The color and hardness of the fabricated glasses were affected by the fast neutron fluence where the transparent glasses turned colored as well as the hardness of the fabricated glasses was decreased. The gamma-ray spectrometric analysis shows a high activity concentration produced in the barium borate glasses due to the formation of radioisotopes Ba-131 and Ba-133 reaches to 5.92E+05 Bq and 4.25E+03 Bq, respectively for sample Cd-5 Batch 3. Additionally, the gamma-ray spectrometric analysis for the sodium silicate glasses shows low activity concentrations emitted from isotopes formed due to the activation of Y₂O₃-associated impurities. These activities are low compared to that emitted by barium borate-based glasses.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.7
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• pp.2711-2717
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• 2024

The current work aims to fabricate metal oxide-doped (PbO, Fe₂O₃, MgO, and Al₂O₃, each of which boasts a purity of 99%) zinc barium borate glasses through the melt quenching technique at the 1000 ℃ melting temperature. The results showed that adding 5 mol.% of metal oxides PbO, Fe₂O₃, Al₂O₃, and MgO increases the density of the zinc barium borate glasses. Additionally, the fabricated glasses' mechanical properties were determined based on the Makishima-Mackenzie model, which proved that the highest mechanical properties were achieved for glasses doped with Al₂O₃ compounds. The mechanical moduli for the glasses doped with Al₂O₃ reach 80.95 GPa (Young), 59.90 GPa (bulk), 31.75 GPa (shear), and 102.23 GPa (longitudinal). Additionally, the Al₂O₃-doped glasses' microhardness reaches 4.77 GPa. Moreover, estimation of the fabricated glasses' gamma-ray shielding capacity utilized Monte Carlo simulation. The highest linear attenuation coefficients are 29.132, 19.906, 19.243, and 18.923 cm^-1 obtained at 0.033 MeV for glasses dopped by PbO, Fe₂O₃, MgO, and Al₂O₃, respectively. Therefore, glasses doped with 5 mol.% of PbO have high gamma-ray shielding capacities followed by glasses doped by Fe₂O₃.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.3058-3067
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• 2021

Sodium zinc borate glasses doped with dysprosium and modified with different concentrations of barium oxide (0-50 mol %) were fabricated using the melting quenching technique. The structural properties of the prepared glass systems were characterized using XRD and FTIR methods. The absorption spectra of the prepared glasses were measured to determine their energy gap and their related optical properties. The density of the glasses and other physical parameters were also reported. Additionally, with the help of Photon Shielding and Dosimetry (PSD) software, we investigated the radiation shielding parameters of the prepared glass systems at different energy values. It was found that an increase in the density of the glasses by increasing the concentration of BaO significantly improved the gamma ray shielding ability of the samples. For practical results, a compatible irradiation set up was designed to check the shielding capability of the obtained glasses using a gamma ray source at 662 keV. The experimentally obtained results strongly agreed with the data obtained by PDS software at the same energy. These results demonstrated that the investigated glass system is a good candidate for several radiation shielding applications when comparing it with other commercial shielding glasses and concretes.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.41 no.11
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• pp.851-857
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• 2004

The stabilizing characteristics of heavy metals in the silicate glass (SD), borosilicate glass (BD), and leadsilicate glass (PD) containing Electric Arc furnace (EAF) dust were studied by the Toxic Characterization Leaching Procedure (TCLP) test. Also, the dependence of the amount of EAF dust upon structural changes of SD, BD, and PD glasses and the TCLP results were investigated by the XRD and FT-IR spectroscopy. In the XRD results, all of SD, BD, and PD specimens containing dust up to 30 wt% were amorphous without crystallizing. In the TCLP test, the concentration of heavy metals leached from the glasses increased with the amount of EAF dust added. The SD specimen series showed the lowest heavy metal leaching and the heavy metal leachate of the PD specimens were lower than those of the BD specimens. But, the Pb leaching from the PD specimens was the highest in the PD glass composition due to the high Pb content. The value of oxygen/network former ratio could be used to compare the chemical durability within the same glass series, but not proper to do between the different glass series. Adding the EAF dust to the SD mother glass, decreased the Si-O-Si symmetry and increased the non-bridging oxygen, which weakened the structure and decreased the chemical durability of glasses. In the BD series glasses, the addition of EAF dust caused the structural changes from tetra-borate group to di-borate group and the formation of the 2-dimensional layer structure of pyre- and ortho- borate, which decreased the chemical durability of glasses. It is concluded that SD series glass among the 3 kinds of glasses is the most effective to stabilize the heavy metals of EAF dust.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.2258-2265
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• 2024

The present investigation aims to study the role of Pr₂O₃ on the structural, physical, and radiation shielding properties of a dense cadmium lead borate glass. The XRD was used to affirm the glassy amorphous structure of fabricated sample materials. Moreover, the FTIR was used to record the change in the FT-IR spectra due to the addition of Pr₂O₃ in the wavenumber interval between 400 and 4000 cm^-1. The features of glass surfaces and the elemental analyses for the synthesized Pr₂O₃-reinforced cadmium lead borate glasses were performed using a SEM, supported by an energy-dispersive spectrometer. The γ-ray protection capacity was evaluated using the Monte Carlo method in a wide energy interval ranging between 0.015 and 15 MeV. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) at 1 MeV was reduced by a factor of 10 % from 0.372 cm^-1 to 0.340 cm^-1. The decrease in the LAC values negatively affected the other shielding properties such as half-value thickness and the transmission factor. Although the linear attenuation coefficient is decreased slightly with the partial substitution of CdO by Pr₂O₃ compound, the fabricated glass samples still have a high shielding capacity compared to the traditional commercial glasses as well as previous similar reported glasses.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.282-293
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• 2021

This paper examines gamma-ray shielding properties of SBC-Bx glass system with the chemical composition of 40SiO₂-10B₂O₃-xBaO-(45-x)CaO- yZnO- zMgO (where x = 0, 10, 20, 30, and 35 mol% and y = z = 6 mol%). Mass attenuation coefficient (µ/ρ) which is an essential parameter to study gamma-ray shielding properties was obtained in the photon energy range of 0.015-15 MeV using PHITS Monte Carlo code for the proposed glasses. The obtained results were compared with those calculated by WinXCOM program. Both the values of PHITS code and WinXCOM program were observed in very good agreement. The (µ/ρ values were then used to derive mean free path (MFP), electron density (N_eff), effective atomic number (Z_eff), and half value layer (HVL) for all the glasses involved. Additionally, G-P method was employed to estimate exposure buildup factor (EBF) for each glass in the energy range of 0.015-15 MeV up to penetration depths of 40 mfp. The results reveal that gamma-ray shielding effectiveness of the SBC-Bx glasses evolves with increasing BaO content in the glass sample. Such that SBC-B35 glass has superior shielding capacity against gamma-rays among the studied glasses. Gamma-ray shielding properties of SBC-B35 glass were compared with different conventional shielding materials, commercial glasses, and newly developed HMO glasse. Therefore, the investigated glasses have potential uses in gamma shielding applications.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.75-80
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• 2006

We studied feasibility of three-dimensional optical memory by utilizing femtosecond laser-induced changes of transmission in photopolymers and photoluminescence in Eu and Sm ion doped sodium borate glasses. We produced transmission change by two photon absorption and obtained sub-Um size spots in photopolymers using 780 nm modelocked Ti-sapphire laser pulses. We also changed valence state of Eu and Sm ions by multi-photon absorption and achieved $\~{\mu}m$ sized spot formation in Sm-doped glasses.

• Journal of the Korean Physical Society
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• v.73 no.12
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• pp.1873-1878
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• 2018

We have investigated the ionic conductivity and dielectric relaxation in $Li_2B_4O_7$ (LBO) and $Li_2O-B_2O_3-Ta_2O_5$ (LBTO) glasses. The sample was synthesized by using the melt quenching method. The frequency dependence of the electrical data from the LBO and LBTO glasses has been analyzed in the frameworks of the impedance Cole-Cole formalism and the universal power-law representation driven by the modified fractional Rayleigh equation. The potential barriers in the LBO and the LBTO glasses turn out to be the same. Comparing with the dc and ac activation energies of the LBO glass, these energies of the LBTO glass decrease due to the increasing Coulomb interaction of inter-cationic interaction.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.155-165
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• 2016

Understanding the effect of boron content on atomic structures of boron-bearing multicomponent silicate melts is essential to reveal the atomistic origins of diverse geochemical processes involving silica-rich magmas, such as explosive volcanic eruption. The detailed atomic environments around B and Al in boron-bearing complex aluminosilicate glasses yield atomistic insights into reactivity of nuclear waste glasses in contact with aqueous solutions. We report experimental results on the effect of boron content on the atomic structures of sodium borate glasses and boron-bearing multicomponent silicate melts [malinkoite ($NaBSiO_4$)-nepheline ($NaAlSiO_4$) pseudo-binary glasses] using the high-resolution solid-state NMR ($^{11}B$ and $^{27}Al$). The $^{11}B$ MAS NMR spectra of sodium borate glasses show that three-coodrinated boron ($^{[3]}B$) increases with increasing $B_2O_3$ content. While the spectra imply that the fraction of non-ring species decreases with decreasing boron content, peak position of the species is expected to vary with Na content. Therefore, the quantitative estimation of the fractions of the ring/non-ring species remains to be explored. The $^{11}B$ MAS NMR spectra of the glasses in the malinkoite-nepheline join show that four-coordinated boron ($^{[4]}B$) increases as $X_{Ma}$ [$=NaBSiO_4/(NaBSiO_4+NaAlSiO_4)$] increases while $^{[3]}B$ decreases. $^{27}Al$ MAS NMR spectra of the multicomponent glasses confirm that four-coordinated aluminum ($^{[4]}Al$) is dominant. It is also observed that a drastic decrease in the peak widths (full-width at half-maximum, FWHM) of $^{[4]}Al$ with an addition of boron ($X_{Ma}=0.25$) in nepheline glasses. This indicates a decrease in structural and topological disorder around $^{[4]}Al$ in the glasses with increasing boron content. The quantitative atomic environments around boron of both binary and multicomponent glasses were estimated from the simulation results of $^{11}B$ MAS NMR spectra, revealing complex-nonlinear variation of boron topology with varying composition. The current results can be potentially used to account for the structural origins of the change in macroscopic properties of boron-bearing oxide melts with varying boron content.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.472-476
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• 2024

It is important that radioactive and nuclear wastes are immobilized in a glass composition with lower melting temperatures due to their economy. In this study, the elastic and mechanical properties of sodium borate-based vitrified radioactive waste were measured using ultrasonic techniques. Many ultrasonic parameters, such as elastic moduli, Poisson's ratio, and microhardness, were calculated by measuring the ultrasonic velocities of the glasses. The ultrasonic velocity data, the density, the calculated elastic moduli, micro-hardness, softening temperature, and Debye temperature depending on the glass composition were evaluated, and the relation with the structure was clarified. It was observed that the elastic modulus and Poisson ratio increased as the Cs₂O content increased in glasses containing Cs waste. This result shows that the rigidity of the network structure of these glasses increases in contrast to the glass containing Sr.