Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-22T05:53:51.822Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Solution-Borne Colloids from Drip Tests using actinide-Doped and Fully-Radioactive Waste Glasses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 September 2012

Jeffrey A. Fortner
Affiliation:
Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
Stephen F. Wolf
Affiliation:
Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
Edgar C. Buck
Affiliation:
Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
Carol J. Mertz
Affiliation:
Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
John K. Bates
Affiliation:
Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
Get access

Abstract

Drip tests designed to replicate the synergistic interactions between waste glass, repository groundwater, water vapor, and sensitized 304L stainless steel in the potential Yucca Mountain Repository have been ongoing in our laboratory for over ten years. Results will be presented from three sets of these drip tests: two with actinide-doped glasses, and one with a fully-radioactive glass. Periodic sampling of these tests have revealed trends in actinide release behavior that are consistent with their entrainment in colloidal material when as-cast glass is reacted. Results from vapor hydrated glass show that initially the actinides are completely dissolved in solution, but as the reaction proceeds, the actinides become suspended in solution. Sequential filtering and alpha spectroscopy of colloid-bearing leachate solutions indicate that more than 80% of the plutonium and americium are bound to particles that are captured by a 0.1 μm filter, while less than 10% of the neptunium is stopped by a 0.1 μm filter. Analytical transmission electron microscopy has been used to examine particles from leachate solutions and to identify several actinide-bearing phases which are responsible for the majority of actinide release during glass corrosion.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Fortner, J. and Bates, J. K., Mat. Res. Soc. Proc. Vol. 412, 205211 (1996).10.1557/PROC-412-205Google Scholar
2. Bates, J. K. and Gerding, T. J., One-Year Results of the NNWSI Unsaturated Test Procedure: SRL 165 Glass Application, Argonne National Laboratory Report ANL-85–41 (1986).Google Scholar
3. Bates, J. K. and Gerding, T. J., Application of the NNWSI Unsaturated Test Method to Actiniae Doped SRL 165 Type Glass, Argonne National Laboratory Report ANL-89/24 (1990).Google Scholar
4. Bates, J. K. and Buck, E. C., Proceedings of the 1994 International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference, American Nuclear Society (1994).Google Scholar
5. Bates, J. K., Bradley, J. P., Teetsov, A., Bradley, C. R., and Buchholtz ten Brink, M., Science 256, 649 (1992).10.1126/science.256.5057.649Google Scholar
6. van Olphen, H., in Clay Colloid Chemistry; John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1977, pp. 92108.Google Scholar
7. Chu, B., Laser Light Scattering, 2nd ed., Academic Press, San Diego (1991).Google Scholar
8. Berne, B. J. and Pecora, R., Dynamic Light Scattering, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York (1976).Google Scholar
9. Provencher, S. W., CONTIN, User's Manual, Version 2, EMBL-DA07, Euro. Molec. Biol. Lab., Heidelburg, Germany (March 1984).Google Scholar
10. Stock, R. S. and Ray, W. H., J. Polymer Sci.: Polym. Phys. Ed., 23, 1393 (1985).Google Scholar
11. Johnsen, R. M. and Brown, W., in Laser Light Scattering in Biochemistry, Harding, S. E., Satelle, D. B., and Bloomfield, V. A., Eds., Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 77 (1992).Google Scholar
12. Former, J. A., Gerding, T. J., and Bates, J. K., in Environmental Issues and Waste Management Technologies in the Ceramic and Nuclear Industries, Ceramic Trans. Vol. 61, Jain, V. and Palmer, R., eds. pp. 455462. (1995).Google Scholar