Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T14:52:42.804Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Geopolymers as Candidates for the Immobilisation of Low- and Intermediate-Level Waste

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2011

Eric Vance ,
Eric Vance ,
Satoshi Kiyama ,
Zaynab Aly  and
Patrick Yee
Eric Vance
Affiliation:
erv@ansto.gov.au, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Institute of Materials and Engineering Science, New Illawarra road, Menai, NSW 2234, Australia, 61-2-9717-3019
Eric Vance
Affiliation:
erv@ansto.gov.au, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Institute of Materials and Engineering Science, New Illawarra Road, Menai, NSW 2234, Australia
Satoshi Kiyama
Affiliation:
erv@ansto.gov.au, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Institute of Materials and Engineering Science, New Illawarra Road, Menai, NSW 2234, Australia
Zaynab Aly
Affiliation:
zax@ansto.gov.au, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Institute of Materials and Engineering Science, New Illawarra Road, Menai, NSW 2234, Australia
Patrick Yee
Affiliation:
pjy@ansto.gov.au, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Institute of Materials and Engineering Science, New Illawarra Road, Menai, NSW 2234, Australia
Get access

Abstract

Geopolymers should be serious waste form candidates for intermediate level waste (ILW), insofar as they are more durable than Portland cement and can pass the PCT-B test for high-level waste. Thus an alkaline ILW could be considered to be satisfactorily immobilised in a geopolymer formulation. However a simulated Hanford tank waste was found to fail the PCT-B criterion even for a waste loading as low as 5 wt%, very probably due to the formation of a soluble sodium phosphate compound(s). This suggests that it could be worth developing a “mixed” GP waste form in which the amorphous material can immobilise cations and a zeolitic component to immobilise anions. The PCT -B test is demonstrably subject to significant saturation effects, especially for relatively soluble waste forms.

Keywords

waste managementceramicenvironmentally benign
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 985: Symposium NN – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXX , 2006 , 0985-NN10-01
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

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. Allahverdi, A. and Skvara, F., Ceramics-Silikaty, 45, 81 (2001).Google Scholar
2. Allahverdi, A. and Skvara, F.,, Ceramics-Silikaty, 45, 143 (2001).Google Scholar
3. Ly, L., Vance, E. R., Perera, D. S., Aly, Z. and Olufson, K., Adv. in Mater. and Mater. Proc. J., 8, 236 (2006).Google Scholar
4. Bakharev, T., Cem. Concr. Res, 35, 1233 (2005).Google Scholar
5. Khalil, M. Y. and Merz, E., J. Nucl. Mater., 211, 141–8 (1994).Google Scholar
6. Zosin, A. P., Priimak, T. I. and Avsaragov, Kh. B., Atomic Energy, 85, 510 (1998).Google Scholar
7. Bao, Y., Grutzeck, M. W. and Jantzen, C. M., J. Amer. Ceram. Soc., 88, 3287 (2005).Google Scholar
8. Fernandez-Jimenez, A., Macphee, D. E., Lachowski, E. E. and Palomo, A., J. Nucl. Mater., 346, 185 (2005).Google Scholar
9. Perera, D S, Vance, E R, Aly, Z, Davis, J and Nicholson, C L, in Environmental Issues and Waste Management technologies in the Ceramic and Nuclear Industries XI, edited by Herman, C. C., Marra, S., Spearing, D., Vance, L. and Vienna, J. (American Ceramic Society, Westerville, OH, USA) 176, 91 (2006).Google Scholar
10. Standard Test Methods for Determining Chemical Durability of Nuclear, Hazardous, and Mixed Waste Glasses and Multiphase Glass Ceramics:The Product Consistency Test, ASTM Committee C26 (2000).Google Scholar
11. Department of Energy, Nuclear Waste Materials Handbook, DOE/TIC-11400 (1982).Google Scholar
12. Perera, D. S., Vance, E. R., Finnie, K. S., Blackford, M. G., Hanna, J. V., Cassidy, D. J. and Nicholson, C. L., in Advances in Ceramic Matrix Composites XI, edited by N. P., Bansal, J. P., Singh and W. M., Kriven (American Ceramic Society, Westerville, Ohio, USA) 175, 225 (2005).Google Scholar
13. Vance, E. R., Perera, D. S., Aly, Z., in Environmental Issues and Waste Management Technologies XI, edited by C. C., Herman, S., Marra, D., Spearing, L., Vance and J., Vienna, (American Ceramic Society, Westerville, OH, USA) 176, 75 (2006).Google Scholar
14. ANSI/ANS-16.1-2003, American Standard Measurement of the Leachability of Solidified Low-level Radioactive Wastes by a Short-Term Test Procedure, American Nuclear Society, Illinois, USA, (2003).Google Scholar