Structure and some properties of glasses intended for immobilization of intermediate-level radioactive wastes

Features of glass formation in systems with intermediate-level wastes and their properties, significant for glass production technology and subsequent safe storage to isolate radionuclides from the environment, are studied. It is shown that under vitrification of the batch comprising radioactive waste salts and borosilicate flux, homogeneous glasses melting the requirements to solidified wastes, are produced. Under vitrification of sulfate-containing wastes lead oxide is introduced to the batch. The structure of such glasses is chemically ordered. Thermal treatment leads to isolation of a sulfate-containing phase which slightly reduces chemical and radiation stability but does not let these characteristics go beyond the admitted limits