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Sorption properties of aged cements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

G. M. N. Baston ,
M. M. Cowper  and
T. A. Marshall
G. M. N. Baston*
Affiliation:
AMEC, B150 Building, Harwell, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QB, UK
M. M. Cowper
Affiliation:
AMEC, B150 Building, Harwell, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QB, UK
T. A. Marshall
Affiliation:
Research Centre for Radwaste Disposal, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Science, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
*
*E-mail: graham.baston@amec.com
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Abstract

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Samples of artificially aged Nirex reference vault backfill (NRVB) were prepared by progressive leaching with deionized water, after which some of the samples underwent hydrothermal treatment. Compared to unaltered NRVB, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) provided evidence for the ageing resulting in alteration of the mineralogy, in particular the absence of portlandite was observed. The specific surface area of NRVB initially increased due to leaching, but then decreased after further leaching.

Sorption distribution ratios (RD values) of uranium(VI), neptunium(IV), tin and zirconium onto aged NRVB samples were measured using the batch sorption technique. For all four elements, there was little difference between RD values for aged NRVB and those for untreated material. The most probable explanation for these findings is that even though the ageing treatments altered the NRVB mineralogy, calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) phases are responsible for most of the radionuclide uptake and their transformation to more crystalline forms has little effect on the bulk sorption capacity of the aged material.

Keywords

ageingsorptionuraniumneptuniumtinzirconium
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 76 , Issue 8 , December 2012 , pp. 3411 - 3423
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
© [2012] The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2012

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