The effect of alpha irradiation on the performance of glass matrix in simulated radioactive contaminated soil by microwave treatment

ABSTRACT

Understanding the irradiation stability of radioactive waste matrices is beneficial for long-term waste treatment. In this work, different contents of Nd₂O₃ were mixed with soil to simulated nuclear contaminated soil wastes. Through microwave sintering method, these wastes were transformed into glassy phase matrices at 1300°C. 0.5 MeV He²⁺ ions were utilized to irradiate the matrices to obtain the irradiation stability under different fluences (1 × 10¹⁴ to 1 × 10¹⁷ions/cm²). The results show that the matrices have a slight influence on the phase composition after irradiation, indicating a considerable stable stability. After irradiation at the highest fluences, the Vickers hardness of the matrix doped with 25 wt.% Nd₂O₃ decreased from 7.07 GPa to 6.72 GPa. Combing with the enhancing leaching rate of the simulated element, the microstructure might be affected under the 0.5 MeV He²⁺ ions irradiation. Comparing with other reported data on Nd leaching rate, the matrix irradiated with the max fluences has considerable chemical stability, indicating the suitableness of microwave sintering method of the treatment of nuclear contaminated soil wastes.

KEYWORDS:

• Irradiation response
• glass matrix
• microwave
• Vickers hardness
• chemical durability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Applied Basic Research Project of Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province [No. 2022NSFSC1197]; the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 21677118]; the Open Project Program of Anhui Province Engineering Laboratory for Mine Ecological Remediation, Anhui University [No.KS-2021-001]; the Project of State Key Laboratory of Environmental Friendly Energy Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology [No. 21fksy13].