Natural glass analogues to alteration of nuclear waste glass: A review and recommendations for further study

The purpose of this report is to review previous work on the weathering of natural glasses; and to make recommendations for further work with respect to studying the alteration of natural glasses as it relates quantifying rates of dissolution. the first task was greatly simplified by the published papers of Jercinovic and Ewing (1987) and Byers, Jercinovic, and Ewing (1987). The second task is obviously the more difficult of the two and the author makes no claim of completeness in this regard. Glasses weather in the natural environment by reacting with aqueous solutions producing a rind of secondary solid phases. It had been proposed by some workers that the thickness of this rind is a function of the age of the glass and thus could be used to estimate glass dissolution rates. However, Jercinovic and Ewing (1987) point out that in general the rind thickness does not correlate with the age of the glass owing to the differences in time of contact with the solution compared to the actual age of the sample. It should be noted that the rate of glass dissolution is also a function of the composition of both the glass and the solution, and the temperature. Quantification of the effects of these parameters (as well as time of contact with the aqueous phase and flow rates) would thus permit a prediction of the consequences of glass-fluid interactions under varying environmental conditions. Defense high- level nuclear waste (DHLW), consisting primarily of liquid and sludge, will be encapsulated by and dispersed in a borosilicate glass before permanent storage in a HLW repository. This glass containing the DHLW serves to dilute the radionuclides and to retard their dispersion into the environment. 318 refs