Ceramic materials for nuclear waste storage*

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dc.contributor.authorReeve. KDen_AU
dc.date.accessioned2025-08-27T04:20:15Zen_AU
dc.date.available2025-08-27T04:20:15Zen_AU
dc.date.issued1990en_AU
dc.date.statistics2025-08-01en_AU
dc.description* The ANSTO Synroc R&D project team won the Australian Ceramic Society Victorian Branch Ceramic Achievement Award in 1989 for significant achievement in Australian ceramic enterprise. This review paper covers the role of Synroc in the general context of ceramic materials for nuclear waste storage. Physical copy of the journal held by ANSTO Library at DDD: 666/47. Pre-print attached.en_AU
dc.description.abstractThe operation of a nuclear power reactor producing 1300 MW of electrical power typically results in the accumulation of around 30 tonnes of spent fuel per annum. The fuel elements are intact but highly radioactive. Many of the isotopic species comprising the one tonne or so of fission products in the spent fuel are short-, medium-_ and/or long-lived beta- or gamma-emitters. In addition, various isotopes of the transuranic elements neptunium, plutonium, americium and curium - amounting typically to 250 kg in the same mass of fuel - have grown in by various nuclear reactions which follow the absorption of fast neutrons by “EU. Most of these transuranics are medium- to long-lived alpha-emitters. Because of its initially very high and then eventually much lower but very long-lived radioactivity, the management of spent fuel is technically and socially challenging in both the short and long term. In the short term, i.e. for several decades, spent fuel is routinely stored in water-filled pools and later may be transferred to air-cooled dry storage vaults. Further management depends on whether or not the fuel is reprocessed to remove most of its reusable uranium and plutonium. Some spent fuel may eventually be disposed of as ‘waste’ in deep geological repositories without ever having been reprocessed. In the reprocessing option, the nuclear waste contains only the residual fission products, the transuranics neptunium, americium and curiumand a very small fraction of the uranium and plutonium. It is widely accepted that this high level waste (HLW) - which is, as produced, a corrosive nitrate solution - must be solidified, perhaps then stored in air-cooled vaults for up to 50-100 years and eventually disposed of by deep geological burial. It is also accepted that the solidified waste form will be, in the broad sense of the term, a ceramic material. The ceramic may be either crystalline, partly crystalline (glass—ceramic) ‘or non-crystalline (glass).en_AU
dc.identifier.citationReeve, K. D. (1990). Ceramic materials for nuclear waste storage*. Journal of the Australisian Ceramic Society, 25(1), 45-58.en_AU
dc.identifier.issn0004-881 Xen_AU
dc.identifier.issue1en_AU
dc.identifier.journaltitleJournal of the Australisian Ceramic Societyen_AU
dc.identifier.pagination45-58en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttps://apo.ansto.gov.au/handle/10238/16416en_AU
dc.identifier.volume26en_AU
dc.language.isoenen_AU
dc.publisherTrans Tech Publicationsen_AU
dc.subjectHigh-level radioactive wastesen_AU
dc.subjectRadioactive waste disposalen_AU
dc.subjectWaste storageen_AU
dc.subjectRadioactive waste storageen_AU
dc.subjectSpent fuel storageen_AU
dc.subjectSpent fuelsen_AU
dc.subjectTransuranium compoundsen_AU
dc.subjectNitratesen_AU
dc.subjectUraniumen_AU
dc.subjectPlutoniumen_AU
dc.subjectFast neutronsen_AU
dc.subjectIsotopic exchangeen_AU
dc.subjectFission productsen_AU
dc.subjectBeta-plus decayen_AU
dc.subjectBeta-minus decayen_AU
dc.subjectAmericiumen_AU
dc.subjectNuclear reactionsen_AU
dc.titleCeramic materials for nuclear waste storage*en_AU
dc.typeJournal Articleen_AU
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