Perlite for permanent confinement of cesium

Jérémy Balencie (1) , D. Burger (2) , Jean Luc Rehspringer (3) , Claude Estournes (4) , S. Vilminot (3) , M. Richard-Plouet (5) , A. Boos (6)

1 SGR - Saint-Gobain Recherche
2 RUB - Ruhr University Bochum = Ruhr-Universität Bochum
3 IPCMS - Institut de Physique et Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg
4 CIRIMAT - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche et d'ingenierie des matériaux
5 IMN - Institut des Matériaux Jean Rouxel
6 IPHC - Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien

We present the potential use of expanded perlite, a metastable amorphous hydrated aluminium silicate, as a permanent medium for the long-term confinement of cesium. The method requires simply a loading by mixing an aqueous cesium nitrate solution and expanded perlite at 300K followed by densification by sintering. The formation of pollucite, CsAlSi2O6, a naturally occurring mineral phase, upon careful heat treatment is demonstrated by X-ray diffraction. Leaching tests on the resulting glass-ceramics reveal a very low Cs departure of 0.5mgm−2d−1.

Domaines: Chimie; Matériaux

Jérémy Balencie, D. Burger, Jean Luc Rehspringer, Claude Estournes, S. Vilminot, et al.. Perlite for permanent confinement of cesium. Journal of Nuclear Materials, 2006, 352 (1-3), pp.196-201. ⟨10.1016/j.jnucmat.2006.02.054⟩. ⟨hal-02898060⟩