Glamor- or How We Achieved a Common Understanding on the Decrease of Glass Dissolution Kinetics Through International Cooperation

The objective of the EC funded GLAMOR project was to achieve a common understanding of the processes that control the decrease of the dissolution rate of high-level waste glass in water when silica becomes saturated. Is affinity control or a protective layer dominating? The approach in this project was special, as no new experiments or models were developed, but rather an international expert team discussed on a common set of experimental data and analytical models. Some of the main conclusions are: (1) both affinity and protective layer concepts must be considered in the interpretation of the rate decreasing stage, (2) the residual dissolution rate observed beyond the silica saturation stage is far more important in view of the long-term performance of the glass. In the GLAMOR final report, we also discussed in detail the modeling parameters, such as the silica saturation concentration, the silica diffusion coefficient in the gel, the silica retention factor in the gel, and the water diffusion coefficient in the diffusion layer.