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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 163 records · Page 9

Glass waste form options for rare-earth fission products from electrochemical reprocessing

Herein, we describe a first-of-a-kind study where lead tellurite (Pb-Te-O), iron phosphate (Fe-P-O), and lanthanide aluminoborosilicate (LABS) waste forms are evaluated for treating and/or immobilizing waste streams containing high rare-earth (RE) content, e.g., RECl 3 , REOCl, and/or REO x . Results from this study show that NdOCl can be immobilized in 78TeO 2 -22PbO glass at up to 10 mass%. Higher loadings of up to 15 mass% were demonstrated, but with a small fraction of crystallization. Two Fe-P-O glasses produced from either RECl 3 (RE = Nd,Ce) or NdOCl revealed products with very similar properties, demonstrating that the phosphate process can be used to chlorinate a variety of RE-containing waste streams. Two LABS glasses produced from Nd 2 O 3 or NdOCl showed similar properties, but the LABS-NdOCl glass did have some residual Cl present. Characterization is provided for all waste forms including chemical analysis, X-ray diffraction, and bulk density.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Investigation of molybdate melts as an alternative method of reprocessing used nuclear fuel

Here, an investigation of molybdate melts containing sodium molybdate (Na 2 MoO 4 ) and molybdenum trioxide (MoO 3 ) to achieve the separation of uranium from fission products by crystallization has been performed. The separation is based on the difference in solubility of the fission product metal oxides compared to the uranium oxide or molybdate in the molybdate melt. The molybdate melt dissolves uranium dioxide at high temperatures, and upon cooling, uranium precipitates as uranium dioxide or molybdate, whereas the fission product metals remain soluble in the melt. Small-scale experiments using gram quantities of uranium dioxide have been performed to investigate the feasibility of UO 2 purification from the fission products. The composition of the uranium precipitate as well as data for partitioning of several fission product surrogates between the uranium precipitate and molybdate melt for various melt compositions are presented and discussed. The fission products Cs, Sr, Ru and Rh all displayed very large distribution ratios. The fission products Zr, Pd, and the lanthanides also displayed good distribution ratios (D > 10). A melt consisting of 20 wt% MoO 3 -50 wt% Na 2 MoO 4 -30 wt% UO 2 heated to 1313 K and cooled to 1123 K for the physical separation of the UO 2 product from the melt, and washed once with Na 2 MoO 4 displays optimum conditions for separation of the UO 2 from the fission products.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Promising Method of Sm–Co Magnet Reprocessing in Alkali Chloride Melts

Developing new, efficient methods for samarium and cobalt recovery from scraps/rejects and swarf at Sm–Co magnet manufacturing sites during shaping and finishing is an important task in terms of meeting their growing demand. In this work, the reaction of oxygen with a solution of samarium and cobalt chlorides in a LiCl–KCl eutectic melt was studied at 400–600 °C to explore possible methods for the separation and recovery of samarium and cobalt from these waste products. The pyrochemical reaction resulted in the formation and precipitation of samarium oxychloride, while the cobalt remained in the melt in a soluble chloride form. The effect of temperature and the amount of oxygen passed through the melt (oxygen-to-samarium molar ratio) on the course of the reaction were studied. Kinetic parameters of the oxygen with samarium chloride reaction were determined.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Relativistic pair beams from TeV blazars: A source of reprocessed GeV emission rather than intergalactic heating

The interaction of TeV photons from blazars with the extragalactic background light produces a relativistic beam of electron-positron pairs streaming through the intergalactic medium (IGM). The fate of the beam energy is uncertain. By means of two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we study the nonlinear evolution of dilute ultra-relativistic pair beams propagating through the IGM. We explore a wide range of beam Lorentz factors γ {sub b} >> 1 and beam-to-plasma density ratios α << 1, so that our results can be extrapolated to the extreme parameters of blazar-induced beams (γ {sub b} ∼ 10{sup 6} and α ∼ 10{sup –15}, for powerful blazars). For cold beams, we show that the oblique instability governs the early stages of evolution, but its exponential growth terminates—due to self-heating of the beam in the transverse direction—when only a negligible fraction ∼(α/γ {sub b}){sup 1/3} ∼ 10{sup –7} of the beam energy has been transferred to the IGM plasma. Further relaxation of the beam proceeds through quasi-longitudinal modes, until the momentum dispersion in the direction of propagation saturates at Δp {sub b,} {sub ∥}/γ{sub b} m{sub e}c ∼ 0.2. This corresponds to a fraction ∼10% of the beam energy—irrespective of γ {sub b} or α—being ultimately transferred to the IGM plasma (as compared to the heating efficiency of ∼50% predicted by one-dimensional models, which cannot properly account for the transverse broadening of the beam). For the warm beams generated by TeV blazars, the development of the longitudinal relaxation is suppressed, since the initial dispersion in beam momentum is already Δp {sub b0,} {sub ∥}/γ {sub b} m{sub e}c ≳ 1. Here, the fraction of beam energy ultimately deposited into the IGM is only ∼α γ {sub b} ∼ 10{sup –9}. It follows that most of the beam energy is still available to power the GeV emission produced by inverse Compton up-scattering of the cosmic microwave background by the beam pairs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Final report: Understanding influence of thermal history and glass chemistry on kinetics of phase separation and crystallization in borosilicate glass-ceramic waste forms for aqueous reprocessed high level waste

This report provides an overview of the research activities conducted over the three-year period, October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2018. The project consisted of the US DOE component and a parallel project funded by the UK’s EPSRC. The US project is reported here, with some overview of the UK project results. The project was designed to be highly collaborative, including work in the US by Washington State University and Rutgers University, and in the UK by the University of Sheffield and the University of Warwick. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory supported the US project with some synthesis and some characterization. The overall program had two aims: (Aim 1) Understand fundamental mechanisms of the phase transitions leading to the conversion of melt to multiphase glass-ceramic as a function of composition and cooling rate; (Aim 2) Understand influence of glass chemistry on kinetics of phase separation and crystallization. This report includes the summary of the project objectives, approaches, results and deliverables.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗