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Radiation Induced Sodium Metal Colloid Formation in Natural Rock Salt From Different Geological Localities*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

J. M. Loman
Affiliation:
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, U.S.A.
P. W. Levy
Affiliation:
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, U.S.A.
K. J. Swylertt
Affiliation:
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, U.S.A.
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Abstract

Radiation damage has been studied in natural rock salt from various localities, including potential repository sites. In the 100 to 300 C range the damage consists of point defects, primarily F-centers, and colloidal metal sodium particles. With increasing dose the F-centers grow to a saturation level, reached at 107 –108 rad, that decreases with increasing temperature to a negligible level at 300 C. Colloid concentration vs. irradiation-time curves follow nucleation and growth curves accurately described by C tn, or C(dose)n, relations at large irradiation times. For fourteen samples,n = 1.85± 0.18 but the values of C vary by a factor of more than 103. The constant C is related to the sample strain, the impurity and void content, dose rate, and possibly other factors. The currently available data indicate that rock salt adjacent to radioactive waste canisters, at a temperature of 150 C, will contain between 0.01 and 10 mole percent of sodium metal when the total dose reaches 1010 rad.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1982

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Footnotes

**

Now with Ford Aerospace and Communications Corp., Palo, Alto, California.

Physics Department

††

Now with Brookhaven National Laboratory Dept. of Nuclear Energy - NRC Nuclear Waste Management Division.

*

Research supported by the Dept. of Energy Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation, operated by Battelle Inst.-Columbus, Ohio, and the Dept. of Energy Division of Basic Energy Sciences, under contract DE–AC02–76CH00016.

References

REFERENCES

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