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
Number of pages9
JournalNPJ Materials Degradation
Volume3
DOIs
StatePublished - 22 Jan 2019

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