• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.99-105
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• 2010

This paper investigated the characteristics of wasteform containing a spent zeolite used as a separating agent of FPs for recycling LiCl waste which would be generated from pyrochemical process of spent PWR fuel. In this study, a conventional borosilicate and Ca-rich glass were used as a consolidating agent for spent zeolite and it's mixing ratio was changed in the range, $25{\sim}35wt%$. The leach rates of Cs and Sr had about $0.1{\sim}0.01g/m^2day$ and $0.001{\sim}0.0001g/m^2day$, respectively. The leach resistance of Cs increased with amount of SAP and it showed about 10 times higher in the Ca-rich glass wasteform than in the conventional borosilciate glass wasteform. The compressive strength of wasteform was affected with the amount of glass. Thermal expansion rate of containing 30wt% glass has relatively lower than others. Also, the melting temperature was little changed in given mixing ratio of glass.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.339-352
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• 2021

Legacy waste from the decommissioned A-1 nuclear power plant in the Slovak Republic is scheduled for immobilisation within a tailored alkali borosilicate glass formulation, as part of ongoing site cleanup. The aqueous durability and characterisation of a simulant glass wasteform for Chrompik III legacy waste, was investigated, including dissolution experiments up to 112 days (90℃, ASTM Type 1 water). The wasteform was an amorphous, light green glassy product, with no observed phase separation or crystalline inclusions. Aqueous leach testing revealed a suitably durable product over the timescale investigated, comparing positively to other simulant nuclear waste glasses and vitreous products tested under similar conditions. Iron and titanium rich precipitates were observed to form at the surface of monolithic samples during leaching, with the formation of an alkali deficient alteration layer behind these at later ages. Overall this glass appears to perform well, and in line with expectations for this chemistry, although longer-term testing would be required to predict overall durability. This work will contribute to developing confidence in the disposability of vitrified Chrompik legacy wastes.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.31-41
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• 2020

We studied the anisotropic shrinkage and deformation characteristics of large size sintered bodies in the manufacturing of glass-ceramic composite wasteform. We used uranium-bearing waste, generated from the treatment of spent uranium catalyst. Sintered specimens were prepared in several forms, comprising a circular disk, and a quarter disk in several diameters of up to 40 cm. Regardless of form or size, the sintered bodies had high isotropic shrinkage when they were fabricated using green bodies prepared at 60 MPa. The average anisotropy rate and average shrinkage rate were 1.6%, and 37.4%, respectively. We confirmed that the glass-ceramic composite wasteform in a large scale disk-type for packing in a 200 L drum could be fabricated with a tolerable anisotropy shrinkage. This has resulted in a significant reduction in the volume of radioactive waste to be disposed of with highly stable wasteform.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2010

In the pyroprocessing of spent nuclear fuels, LiCl-KCl waste salt containing radioactive rare earth chlorides are generated. The radioactive rare earth oxides are recovered by co-oxidative precipitation of rare earth elements. The powder phase of rare eath oxide waste must be immobilized to produce a monolithic wasteform suitable for storage and ultimate disposal. The immobilization of these waste developed in this study involves a solid state sintering of the waste with host borosilicate glass and zinc titanate based ceramic matrix(ZIT). And the rare-earth monazite which synthesised by reaction of ammonium di-hydrogen phosphate with the rare earth oxides waste, were immobilzed with the borosilicate glass. It is shown that the developed ZIT ceramic wasteform is highly resistant the leaching process, high density and thermal conductivity.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.211-221
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• 2016

Waste salt generated from a pyro-processing for the recovery of uranium and transuranic elements has high volatility at vitrification temperature and low compatibility in conventional waste glasses. For this reason, KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) suggested a new method to de-chlorinate waste salt by using an inorganic composite named SAP ($SiO_2-Al_2O_3-P_2O_5$). In this study, the de-chlorination behavior of waste salt and the microstructure of consolidated form were examined by adding $B_2O_3$ and $Fe_2O_3$ to the original SAP composition. De-chlorination behavior of metal chloride waste was slightly changed with given compositions, compared with that of original SAP. In the consolidated forms, the phase separation between Si-rich phase and P-rich phase decreases with the amount of $Al_2O_3$ or $B_2O_3$ as a connecting agent between Si and P-rich phase. The results of PCT (Product Consistency Test) indicated that the leach-resistance of consolidated forms out of reference composition was lowered, even though the leach-resistance was higher than that of EA (Environmental Assessment) glass. From these results, it could be inferred that the change in the content of Al or B in U-SAP affected the microstructure and leach-resistance of consolidated form. Further studies related with correlation between composition and characteristics of wasteform are required for a better understanding.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.171-177
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• 2007

This study suggested a new method to stabilize molten salt wastes generated from the pyre-process for the spent fuel treatment. Using conventional sol-gel process, $SiO_2-Al_2O_3-P_2O_5$ (SAP) inorganic material that is reactive to metal chlorides were prepared. In this paper, the reactivity of SAP with the metal chlorides at $650{\sim}850$, the thermal stability of reaction products and their leach-resistance under the PCT-A test method were investigated. Alkali metal chlorides were converted into metal aluminosilicate($LixAlxSi1-_xO_{2-x}$) and metal phosphate($Li_3PO_4\;and\;Cs_2AlP_3O_{10}$) While alkali earth and rare earth chlorides were changed into only metal phosphates ($Sr_5(PO_4)_3Cl\;and\;CePO_4$). The conversion rate was about $96{\sim}99%$ at a salt waste/SAP weight ratio of 0.5 and a weight loss up to $1100^{\circ}C$ measured by thermogravimetric analysis were below 1wt%. The leach rates of Cs and Sr under the PCT-A test condition were about $10^{-2}g/m^2\;day\;and\;10^{-4}g/m^2\;day$. From these results, it could be concluded that SAP can be considered as an effective stabilizer for metal chlorides and the method using SAP will give a chance to reduce the volume of salt wasteform for the final disposal through further researches.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 2012

Metal chloride waste is generated as a main waste streams in a series of electrolytic processes of a pyrochemical process. Different from carbonate or nitrate salt, metal chloride is not decomposed into oxide and chlorine but it is just vaporized. Also, it has low compatibility with conventional silicate glasses. Our research group adapted the dechlorination approach for the immobilization of waste salt. In this study, the composition of SAP ($SiO_2-Al_2O_3-P_2O_5$) was adjusted to enhance the reactivity and to simplify the solidification process as a subsequent research. The addition of $Fe_2O_3$ into the basic SAP decreased the SAP/Salt ratio in weight from 3 for SAP 1071 to 2.25 for M-SAP( Fe=0.1). The experimental results indicated that the addition of $Fe_2O_3$ increased the reactivity of M-SAP with LiCl-KCl but the reactivity gradually decreased above Fe=0.1. Also, introducing $B_2O_3$ into M-SAP requires no glass binder for the consolidation of reaction products. U-SAP ($SiO_2-Al_2O_3-Fe_2O_3-P_2O_5-B_2O_3$) could effectively dechlorinate the LiCl-KCl waste and its reaction product could be consolidated as a monolithic form without a glass binder. The leaching test result indicated that U-SAP 1071 was more durable than other SAPs wasteform. By using U-SAP, 1 g of waste salt could generated 3~4 g of wasteform for final disposal. The final volume would be about 3~4 times lower than the glass-bonded sodalite. From these results, it could be concluded that the dechlorination approach using U-SAP would be one of prospective methods to manage the volatile waste salt.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.49-58
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• 2018

For the immobilization of high-radioactive nuclides such as Cs and Sr by high-temperature thermal decomposition, this study was carried out to investigate the phase transformation with calcined temperature by using TGA (thermogravimetric analysis) and XRD (X-ray diffraction) in the Cs-adsorbed CHA (chabazite zeolite of K type)-Cs and CHA-PCFC (potassium cobalt ferrocyanide)-Cs zeolite system, and Sr-adsorbed 4A-Sr and BaA-Sr zeolite system, respectively. In the case of CHA-Cs zeolite system, the structure of CHA-Cs remained at up to $900^{\circ}C$ and recrystallized to pollucite ($CsAlSi_2O_6$) at $1,100^{\circ}C$ after undergoing amorphous phase at $1,000^{\circ}C$. However, the CHA-CFC-Cs zeolite system retained the CHA-PCFC-Cs structure up to $700^{\circ}C$, but its structure collapsed in $900{\sim}1,000^{\circ}C$, and then transformed to amorphous phase, and recrystallized to pollucite at $1,100^{\circ}C$. In the case of 4A-Sr zeolite system, on the other hand, the structure of 4A-Sr maintained up to $700^{\circ}C$ and its phase transformed to amorphous at $800^{\circ}C$, and recrystallized to Sr-feldspar ($SrAl_2Si_2O_8$, hexagonal) at $900^{\circ}C$ and to $SrAl_2Si_2O_8$ (triclinic) at $1,100^{\circ}C$. However, the BaA-Sr zeolite system structure began to break down at below $500^{\circ}C$, and then transformed to amorphous phase in $500{\sim}900^{\circ}C$ and recrystallized to Ba/Sr-feldspar (coexistence of $Ba_{0.9}Sr_{0.1}Al_2Si_2O_8$ and $Ba_{0.5}Sr_{0.5}Al_2Si_2O_8$) at $1,100^{\circ}C$. All of the above zeolite systems recrystallized to mineral phase through the dehydration/(decomposition) ${\rightarrow}$ amorphous ${\rightarrow}$ recrystallization with increasing temperature. Although further study of the volatility and leachability of Cs and Sr in the high-temperature thermal decomposition process is required, Cs and Sr adsorbed in each zeolite system are mineralized as pollucite, Sr-feldspar and Ba/Sr-feldspar. Therefore, Cs and Sr seen to be able to completely immobilize in the calcining wasteform/(solidified wasteform).

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.237-243
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• 1995

An estimate is made on the potential generation rate of H: from radiolysis of the Paraffin-wax encapsulant Proposed for the solidified liquid concentrate wasteform. The results show that the radiolytic Production of $H_2$ from paraffin-wax-encapsulated waste is dominated by the radiation energy released from $^{60}Co$. The radiolytic production of $H_2$ will proceed at an initial rate equivalent to aproximately $4.4{\times}10^2cm^3yr^1$ in 200 litre drums that are partly filled with 120 litres of encapsulated waste. The gas production rate will fall to a value of $7.2cm^3yr^1$ after 100 years. The lower flammable limit for $H_2$ in air will be reached in about 25 years and the lower explosive limit for $H_2$ in air would not be reached in 1000years. The timescale in which these safety-related limits are reached is strongly dependent on the level of filling of each waste drum. A reduction of the air space inside each drum would reduce the time required to reach the lower flammable limit.