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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Spent fuel reprocessing by an innovative reductive extraction process in a molten fluoride medium (LiF/AlF3) is now being evaluated; in this hypothesis, all the unrecoverable fission products would be conditioned as fluorides. A preliminary study was undertaken to assess the feasibility of incorporating these fluorides by melting in a glass-ceramic matrix. The containment matrix for the fluorinated waste stream was selected after examining the consequences of fluorinated compounds on the vitreous state and on the physical and chemical properties of the melt and the solidified glass. The presence of fluorinated compounds in the raw materials used to produce the vitreous material raises the problem of the volatility of some fluorides, of their solubility in the melt, and of possible crystallization of the material.