Speaker
Dr
Claire Corkhill
(NucleUS Immobilisation Science Laboratory, University of Sheffield,)
Description
Under the generic scenario envisaged for the geological disposal of vitrified UK high- and intermediate-level waste glass (HLW and ILW, respectively), high pH environments, formed through degradation of the cementitious engineered barrier, are expected to dominate the ground water chemistry thousands of years into the future. We highlight the main findings of a number of recent and ongoing studies that aim to evaluate and understand how cementitious groundwater compositions influence the dissolution rate of vitrified wasteforms, including: simulant UK HLW; the International Simple Glass; natural basaltic glass and glasses designed for ILW. Briefly, we discuss results detailing the mechanisms of alteration layer formation in Ca-rich systems; we describe the influence of idealised cement leachate solutions on ion-exchange processes during the initial stages of dissolution; and we review the application of single-pass flow-through methods to derive the fundamental parameters necessary to model the dissolution kinetics of vitrified waste.
Primary author
Dr
Claire Corkhill
(NucleUS Immobilisation Science Laboratory, University of Sheffield,)
Co-authors
Mr
Adam Fisher
(NucleUS Immobilisation Science Laboratory, University of Sheffield)
Ms
Colleen Mann
(NucleUS Immobilisation Science Laboratory, University of Sheffield)
Dr
Daniel Backhouse
(NucleUS Immobilisation Science Laboratory, University of Sheffield)
Prof.
Neil Hyatt
(NucleUS Immobilisation Science Laboratory, University of Sheffield)
Prof.
Russell Hand
(NucleUS Immobilisation Science Laboratory, University of Sheffield)
