Ceramic Mineral Waste-Forms for Nuclear Waste Immobilization

Abstract

Crystalline ceramics are intensively investigated as effective materials in various nuclear energy applications, such as inert matrix and accident tolerant fuels and nuclear waste immobilization. This paper presents an analysis of the current status of work in this field of material sciences. We have considered inorganic materials characterized by different structures, including simple oxides with fluorite structure, complex oxides (pyrochlore, murataite, zirconolite, perovskite, hollandite, garnet, crichtonite, freudenbergite, and P-pollucite), simple silicates (zircon/thorite/coffinite, titanite (sphen), britholite), framework silicates (zeolite, pollucite, nepheline /leucite, sodalite, cancrinite, micas structures), phosphates (monazite, xenotime, apatite, kosnarite (NZP), langbeinite, thorium phosphate diphosphate, struvite, meta-ankoleite), and aluminates with a magnetoplumbite structure. These materials can contain in their composition various cations in different combinations and ratios: Li–Cs, Tl, Ag, Be–Ba, Pb, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Cd, B, Al, Fe, Ga, Sc, Cr, V, Sb, Nb, Ta, La, Ce, rare-earth elements (REEs), Si, Ti, Zr, Hf, Sn, Bi, Nb, Th, U, Np, Pu, Am and Cm. They can be prepared in the form of powders, including nano-powders, as well as in form of monolith (bulk) ceramics. To produce ceramics, cold pressing and sintering (frittage), hot pressing, hot isostatic pressing and spark plasma sintering (SPS) can be used. The SPS method is now considered as one of most promising in applications with actual radioactive substances, enabling a densification of up to 98–99.9% to be achieved in a few minutes. Characteristics of the structures obtained (e.g., syngony, unit cell parameters, drawings) are described based upon an analysis of 462 publications.