Preliminary Studies of the Disposition of Cesium in a Glass-Bonded Sodalite Waste form

Abstract

ABSTRACTArgonne National Laboratory has developed an electrometallurgical treatment for DOE spent metallic nuclear fuel. Fission products are immobilized in a durable glass bonded sodalite ceramic waste form (CWF) suitable for long term storage in a geological repository. Cesium is estimated to be in the waste form at approximately 0.1 wt.%. The exact disposition of cesium was uncertain and it was believed to be uniformly distributed throughout the waste form. A correlation of X-ray diffractometry (XRD), electron microscopy (EM), and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) performed on surrogate ceramic waste forms with high cesium loadings found a high cesium content in the glass phase and in several non-sodalite aluminosilicate phases. Cesium was not detected in the sodalite phase.