Influence of young cement water on the corrosion of the International Simple Glass

Colleen Man, Karine Ferrand, Sanheng Liu, Jeremy R. Eskelsen, Eric Pierce, Karel Lemmens, Claire Corkhill

Research outputpeer-review

Abstract

Understanding the corrosion of nuclear waste glass is critical to predicting its safe disposal within a geological facility. The corrosion mechanisms and kinetics of the International Simple Glass, a simplified version of high-level nuclear waste glass, was shown to be significantly influenced by a high pH cement solution representative of disposal conditions. We provide the first microscopic characterisation of the porous, Zr-rich aluminoalkali-silica gel corrosion layer that was observed. Ca, Na and K from the cement solution were incorporated into the corrosion layer to charge compensate Si, Al and Zr species; the incorporation of Al was postulated to result in precipitation of an aluminosilicate-rich gel with large voids, facilitating rapid transport of species through the gel layer and significantly enhancing the corrosion rate. Precipitation of Al-containing zeolite and phyllosilicate phases was also observed, indicating that cementitious solutions may promote the detrimental ‘rate resumption’ stage of glass corrosion.
Original languageEnglish
Article number5
Pages (from-to)1-9
Number of pages9
JournalNPJ Materials Degradation
Volume3
StatePublished - 22 Jan 2019

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