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Development of Ceramic Waste Forms for High-Level Nuclear Waste over the Last 30 years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2011

Eric Vance
Eric Vance*
Affiliation:
[email protected], Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Institute of Materials and Engineering Science, New Illawarra road, Menai, NSW 2234, Australia, 61-2-9717-3019
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Abstract

Many types of ceramics have been put forward for immobilisation of high-level waste (HLW) from reprocessing of nuclear power plant fuel or weapons production. After describing some historical aspects of waste form research, the essential features of the chemical design and processing of these different ceramic types will be discussed briefly. Given acceptable laboratory and long-term predicted performance based on appropriately rigorous chemical design, the important processing parameters are mostly waste loading, waste throughput, footprint, offgas control/minimisation, and the need for secondary waste treatment. It is concluded that the “problem of high-level nuclear waste” is largely solved from a technical point of view, within the current regulatory framework, and that the main remaining question is which technical disposition method is optimum for a given waste.

Keywords

ceramicwaste managementcrystal
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 985: Symposium NN – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXX , 2006 , 0985-NN04-01
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

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