ANSTO has developed a combination of tailored nuclear waste form chemistries coupled with the use of flexible hot-isostatic pressing processing technology to enable the successful incorporation of problematic nuclear wastes into dense, durable monoliths. This combined package also enables the design of waste forms with waste loadings well in excess of those achievable via baseline melting routes using borosilicate glass, as hot-isostatic pressing is not constrained by factors such as glass viscosity, crystallisation and electrical conductivity. In this paper we will discuss some of our experiences with problematic wastes, namely plutonium wastes, sludges and HLW such as the Idaho calcines.
Insight into the order-disorder transition of irradiated pyrochlore solid solutions as potential nuclear waste forms
