Overview
ABSTRACT
For several decades, the vitrification solution of high level and long life waste from nuclear fuel operations, has been used at international level. Matrices based on mineral phases and of glass present containment physio-chemical properties and an undeniable performance; including a significant incorporation of densification capacity and good resistance to aqueous alterations. Thus the optimization of specific confinement matrices concerning minor actinides, iodine and cesium leads not only to significant elements of manufacturing and implementation feasibility, but also long-term behavior, with a sizable decrease in dissolution speed.
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Read the articleAUTHORS
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Catherine FILLET: Nuclear Energy Division, Saclay Center, CEA
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Nicolas DACHEUX: Professor - Marcoule Institute for Separative Chemistry (ICSM), Montpellier 2 University
INTRODUCTION
Since the end of the 1950s, solutions (mineral phases, glass) for the containment of final high-level, long-lived waste from nuclear fuel processing operations have been envisaged. Vitrification of this high-level waste gained international acceptance in the 1980s, and remains the benchmark solution for conditioning high-level waste today, thanks to the containment quality and performance of this type of matrix (see
the capacity of the glass to incorporate elements from the fission product solution (around thirty elements);
large-scale glass production by melting at reasonable temperatures (around 1,100°C);
the absence of any significant impact on glass properties of irradiation damage caused by the decay of radionuclides incorporated in the glass lattice.
In France, research carried out under the Bataille law (law of December 30, 1991 on nuclear waste management) has made the confinement of certain long-lived radionuclides within specific ceramic matrices part of an advanced separation/conditioning scheme for long-lived radionuclides, as an alternative to the reference advanced separation/transmutation route.
Studies carried out within the NOMADE (new materials for waste) laboratory group, which includes CEA, CNRS, universities, EDF and Areva NC, have demonstrated the interest of several materials on the basis of a number of physico-chemical properties of interest . These properties include a high incorporation capacity, a densification capacity , good resistance to aqueous alteration, notably through dissolution phenomena , and to irradiation
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