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Ceramic matrices for plutonium disposition
- Source :
- Progress in Nuclear Energy. 49:635-643
- Publication Year :
- 2007
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2007.
-
Abstract
- One of the major issues related to the expanded use of nuclear power and the development of advanced nuclear fuel cycles is the fate of plutonium and “minor” actinides. In addition, substantial quantities of plutonium and highly enriched uranium from dismantled nuclear weapons now require disposition. There are two basic strategies for the disposition of the actinides: (1) to “burn” or transmute the actinides using nuclear reactors or accelerators; (2) to “sequester” the actinides in chemically durable, radiation-resistant materials that are suitable for geologic disposal. This paper deals with actinide-bearing materials that support the latter approach. During the past two decades, a considerable amount of research and development has been done in an effort to develop matrices for the immobilization of plutonium and the “minor actinides”, Np, Am and Cm. A variety of waste form materials – oxides, silicates and phosphates – have been developed that have a high capacity for the incorporation of actinides, are chemically durable and, in some cases, resistant to the radiation-induced transformation to the aperiodic state. These waste forms can be selected depending on the composition of the waste stream that contains the actinides, the desired materials' properties of the waste form, and the geochemical and hydrologic conditions of the specific repository. The present state-of-knowledge for these materials is such that now one can design materials for very specific conditions, such as the thermal history and accumulated radiation dose, in a repository.
- Subjects :
- Nuclear fuel
Waste management
business.industry
Nuclear engineering
Neptunium
Energy Engineering and Power Technology
chemistry.chemical_element
Actinide
Nuclear weapon
Nuclear power
Enriched uranium
Plutonium
Nuclear Energy and Engineering
chemistry
visual_art
visual_art.visual_art_medium
Environmental science
Ceramic
Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
business
Waste Management and Disposal
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 01491970
- Volume :
- 49
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Progress in Nuclear Energy
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........35261cb4750a158655a852e3017f57e5