Quantitative Determination of Crystalline Phases in Nuclear Waste Glasses

Abstract

In order to assess the longterm chemical and physical stability of high level waste glasses it is important to know the amounts of crystalline phases present.In principal all information about the crystalline state can be derived from its X-ray powder diffraction pattern,provided the spectral resolution is sufficiently high. Powderdiffraction techniques are the only means available to determine the concentration of crystalline phases in the presence of equivalent amorphous components. In addition it permits the determination of specific crystalline phases in a multicomponent system.