High-alumina tailored nuclear waste ceramics

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 Al2O3-Nd2O,-alkali + alkaline earth-(Mg, Fe, Ni)O, enabling the extent of waste loading and the phase stability to be predicted.

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