Abstract
Glass-ceramics were developed initially for the immobilization of miscellaneous Pu-residues at the UK’s Sellafield site from which it was uneconomic to recover Pu for reuse. Renewed interest in the immobilization of a portion of the UK PuO2 stockpile has led to glass-ceramics being evaluated for bulk Pu immobilization. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) in the UK have proposed hot isostatic pressing (HIP) as a potential consolidation technique for the processing of these wasteforms. In this study, zirconolite based glass-ceramics were investigated to determine an optimum formulation. The yield of zirconolite is shown to vary with glass composition and glass fraction, such that a higher Al content favours zirconolite formation. The sample preparation process is discussed to highlight the importance of a high temperature heat-treatment during sample preparation to achieve high quality HIPed wasteforms.
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Thornber, S., Heath, P., Maddrell, E. et al. Investigation of Processing Parameters for the Consolidation of Actinide Glass-Ceramic Wasteforms by Hot Isostatic Pressing. MRS Advances 1, 4269–4274 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1557/adv.2017.219
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/adv.2017.219