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High‐Alumina Tailored Nuclear Waste Ceramics
Author(s) -
MORGAN P. E. D.,
CLARKE D. R.,
JANTZEN C. M.,
BARKER A. B.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1151-2916.1981.tb09597.x
Subject(s) - spinel , ceramic , materials science , uraninite , mineralogy , phase (matter) , alkali metal , radioactive waste , crystal structure , metallurgy , chemical engineering , chemistry , uranium , nuclear chemistry , crystallography , organic chemistry , engineering
A dense high‐alumina ceramic has been developed for the immobilization of Savannah River Plant nuclear waste. The ceramic, fabricated by reactive hot‐pressing, consists of four compatible crystalline phases, alumina, spinel, magnetoplumbite, and uraninite. The magnetoplumbite phase can incorporate the elements Cs, Sr, Si, Na, Ca, Ba, La, Nd, Mn, Fe, Ce, K, and Ni in its crystal structure, whereas the uraninite phase hosts the elements U, Th, and Zr. The remaining phases in the ceramic provide microstructural isolation of both the uraninite and magnetoplumbite. The mineralogy of the system is modeled by phase‐compatibility investigations of the pseudoquaternary system Al 2 O 3 ‐Nd 2 O,‐alkali + alkaline earth‐(Mg, Fe, Ni)O, enabling the extent of waste loading and the phase stability to be predicted.