| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
Materials Science & Technology 2012
|
| Symposium
|
MS&T'12 Poster Session
|
| Presentation Title |
B36: Engineering of Amorphous Granite |
| Author(s) |
Pin Yang, Yifeng Wang, Mark A. Rodriguez, Patrick Brady, Peter Swift, Clay Newton |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Pin Yang |
| Abstract Scope |
Safe disposal of radioactive waste, especially spent fuel and other forms of high-level waste, is one of the major challenges facing contemporary science and engineering. A recent proposal,1 using very deep boreholes, has drawn much attention as the deeper disposal offers a safer and environmentally more acceptable solution. The new scheme capitalizes on the heat output from waste packages to generate a substantial zone of partial melting of the grout material or granite surrounding the container. The melt will slowly cool as radioactivity decays and recrystallize to seal the packages into a sarcophagus of solid granite. This approach has triggered a series of studies on partial melting and recrystallization of crushed nature granite. In this study, we investigated the potential use of amorphous granite, instead of crystalline granite, as a grout material for high-level waste disposal. The amorphous granite was made from melting of crystalline granite powder at 1200°C. After melting, the material will be bound to the metal containers and granite at a lower temperature, making it a great candidate for grout materials. Additional chemical modifications were performed to lower its melting point and accelerate the recrystallization process. The kinetics of crystalline phase formation as well as the effects of these chemical modifications on the physical properties will be reported. The work demonstrates that the recrystallization of engineered granite can be completed within hours as opposed to partially melted granite or nature granite that is widely believed to take years or millennia. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Definite: A CD-only volume |