Confining caesium in expanded natural Perlite

Jean Luc Rehspringer (1) , J. Balencie (1) , Serge Vilminot (1) , Didier Burger (1) , Anne Boos (2) , Claude Estournès (3)

1 IPCMS - Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg
2 LCAM - Laboratoire de Chimie Analytique et Minérale
3 CIRIMAT - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche et d'ingenierie des matériaux

We present the potential use of expanded perlite, a metastable amorphous hydrated aluminum silicate, as a permanent medium for the long-term confinement of caesium. A simple loading by mixing an aqueous caesium nitrate solution and expanded perlite at 300K followed by thermal annealing leads to 96% sintering. The formation of pollucite, CsAlSi2O6, a naturally occurring mineral phase, appears as the crystalline phase embedded in a glassy phase. Leaching tests on the resulting glass-ceramics reveal a very low Cs departure of 0.5 mgm−2 day−1. This simple method seems to be a good way to permanently confine caesium issued from recycled nuclear waste.

Mots clés: Leaching process; Nuclear applications; Sintering; Leaching process

Domaines: Matériaux

Jean Luc Rehspringer, J. Balencie, Serge Vilminot, Didier Burger, Anne Boos, et al.. Confining caesium in expanded natural Perlite. Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 2007, vol. 27 (2-3), pp. 619-622. ⟨10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2006.04.118⟩. ⟨hal-00808243⟩