| Year of Award: | 1997 |
| Amount of Award: | $1,800,000 |
| Problem Areas: | Nuclear Materials (primary) Spent Nuclear Fuel |
| Science Category/SubCategory: | Materials Science / Chemical and Structural Properties Of Storage Materials |
| Lead Principal Investigator: | Dr. Xiangdong Feng MSIN P8-37 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory P. O. Box 999 Richland, Washington 99352 509-373-7284, x.feng@ccmail.pnl.gov |
| Principal Investigator at Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation: | Dr. Eric R. Vance Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation Private Mailbag 1 Menai, New South Wales 2232 +612-971-73733, eric.vance@ansto.gov.au |
| Principal Investigator at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: | Dr. David K. Shuh MS 70A-1150 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory One Cyclotron Road Berkeley, California 94720 510-486-6937, dkshuh@actinide.lbl.gov |
| Principal Investigator at the University of Michigan: | Dr. Rodney C. Ewing 3003 S. State Street University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 313-647-8529, rodewing@umich.edu |
| For More Information: |
Description Provided by Investigator:
The objective of this multi-institutional, multi-national research effort is to understand the distributions, solubilities, and releases of radionuclides and neutron absorbers in waste forms. The results will provide the underpinning knowledge for developing, evaluating, selecting, and matching waste forms for the safe disposal of various wastes associated with Pu, miscellaneous spent nuclear fuels (SNF), and other transuranic (TRU) wastes and for developing deterministic model for the long-term performance assessment of radionuclide containment.
The scope of this project includes: 1) systematically investigate the solubility and partition behavior of selected waste forms as a function of composition, temperature, and processing conditions with the goal of enhancing our understanding of the physics and chemistry of radionuclides and neutron absorbers in simplified waste forms; 2) determine the local structure of radionuclides and neutron absorbers waste forms in various phases: a) a microscale characterization to determine what phases are presented and how key elements are partitioned among those phases using optical, scanning, and transmission microscopies and XRD; b) a molecular level characterization to understand local coordination using EXAFS and NMR; c) an atomic level characterization to determine oxidation state using XANES; 3) selectively study waste form properties with the emphasis on the release behaviors of neutron absorbers and radionuclides.