Abstract:
Nuclear energy makes up a significant portion of today's energy industry, unfortunately the by-products are radioactive and need to be safely contained. Glass is currently being considered for use in such a containment unit. In this study, three alumino-borosilicate glasses with varying amounts of Na, Ca, and Zr were mixed to achieve different non-bridging oxygen (NBO) concentrations. The expectation is that the glass with the most NBOs will corrode the fastest, while the glass with the fewest NBOs will corrode the slowest. The glass powders were subjected to 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 day corrosion periods, in pH 3 and pH 9 solutions, at 90_C. To evaluate the corrosion of each glass, inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy (ICP) was used to measure the amount of ions released into solution, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) allowed for chemical and visual surface analysis of the glass powders before and after corrosion. XPS and ICP analysis showed leaching in all glasses, possibly indicating the presence of a sodium-boron rich phase. SEM revealed surface feature formation on Glasses 2 and 3. It was determined that glass composition with respect to NBO concentration and testing conditions affected the corrosion of the glasses.
