Tatsuya Tsuzuki

Mechanical and thermal properties of uranium intermetallic compounds

Abstract The structures and lattice constants of UFe 2 , UNi 2 , UPd 3 , URh 3 , URu 3 and UNi 5 were examined, and thermal expansion coefficients of the intermetallic compounds were evaluated from high-temperature X-ray diffraction data. The longitudinal and shear sound velocities of the intermetallic compounds were markedly different, which enabled us to estimate the elastic properties. The intermetallic compounds were found to have higher bulk moduli than uranium metal. The values of microhardness of the intermetallic compounds except UFe 2 were much higher than pure uranium. The physico–chemical properties of the intermetallic compounds such as Debye temperature and heat capacity were estimated from the sound velocities and the thermal expansion data, and the correlations between the properties were discussed.

Behaviour of IPG Waste Forms Bearing BaSO4as the Dominant Sludge Constituent Generated From the Treatment of Water Used for Cooling the Stricken Power Reactors

The great amount of water used for cooling the stricken power reactors at Fukushima Dai-ichi following the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011 has resulted in accumulation of cooling water so-called the remaining water in some buildings.As the cooling water is subsequently contaminated by fission products (FPs) and some other radioactive substances, it is necessary to decontaminate this ‘cooling water’ to reduce the volume of liquid radioactive waste and to reuse it again for cooling the affected reactors.Some methods are applied to remove the radioactive substances from the cooling water. However, after treatments of water, there arises a secondary radioactive waste, the sludge. Steps are now taken to immobilize this sludge.In this paper, BaSO4, as one of main constituents of the sludge, was chosen as an immobilizing target substance. The appropriate manufacturing condition of glass waste form for loading the sludge (BaSO4) was studied and the chemical durability was evaluated by measuring the dissolution rate. For this experiment, the iron phosphate glass (IPG), which is known to possess a large loading capacity for a variety of chemical substances, was employed as the glass medium.Based on experimental results, it is evident that BaSO4 can be loaded into the IPG medium when it possesses the appropriate composition and melting temperature. During loading, BaSO4 converted into BaO, acting as a network modifier, which leads to enhanced stability of IPG.Copyright

Physico-chemical Properties of Fe2P-type Uranium Intermetallic Compounds

The structures and lattice constants of ternary uranium intermetallic compounds of UFeAl, UCoAl, UNiAl and UlrAl were examined, and thermal expansion coefficients of the intermetallic compounds were evaluated from high-temperature X-ray diffraction data. The physico-chemical properties of the intermetallic compounds such as Debye temperature and heat capacity were estimated from the sound velocities and the thermal expansion data, and the correlations between the properties were discussed. The characteristic of the metallic bonding in the intermetallic compounds does not markedly differ from that of pure metals

Research on vitrification technology to immobilize radioactive sludge generated from Fukushima Daiichi power plant: enhanced glass medium

ABSTRACT The search for an enhanced glass medium to immobilize the sludge at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is our main purpose. The iron phosphate glass (IPG) is a potential candidate as we set about assessing it by means of theoretical and experimental investigation. Based on the results of this study, the IPG showed favorable characteristics as a vitrification medium for the sludge.

Applicability of Iron Phosphate Glass Medium for Loading NaCl Originated From Seawater Used for Cooling the Stricken Power Reactors

As the part of investigation for immobilization of the sludge as one of the radioactive wastes arising from the treatment of contaminated water at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, applicability of vitrification method has been evaluated as a candidate technique.The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of NaCl as one of the main constituents of sludge, on glass formation and glass properties. Two kinds of iron phosphate glass (IPG) media in the xFe2O3-(100-x)P2O5, with x = 30 and 35 (mol%) were chosen and the glass formation, structure and properties including density, coefficient of thermal expansion, glass transition temperature, onset crystallization temperature and chemical durability of NaCl-loaded IPG were studied. The results are summarized as follows.Sodium chloride, NaCl could be loaded into IPG medium as Na2O and Cl contents and their loading ratio could be up to 19 and 15 mol%, respectively. Majority of Cl content of raw material NaCl was thought to be volatilized during glass melting. Loading NaCl into IPG induces to depolymerize glass network of phosphate chains, leads to decrease both glass transition and onset crystallization temperatures, and to increase coefficient of thermal expansion. NaCl-loaded IPG indicated good chemical durability in case of using 35Fe2O3-65P2O5 medium.Copyright

Removal of Fission Products in the Spent Electrolyte Using Iron Phosphate Glass as a Sorbent

This study is carried out to make the pyroprocessing hold a competitive advantage from the viewpoint of environmental load reduction and economical improvement. As one of the measures to reduce the volume of the high-level radioactive waste (HLW), the phosphate conversion method is applied for removal of fission products (FP) from the melt, referring to the spent electrolyte in this paper. Among the removing target chlorides in the spent electrolyte i.e., alkali metals, alkaline earth metals and rare earth elements, only the rare earth elements and lithium form the precipitates as insoluble phosphates by reaction with Li3 PO4 . The sand filtration method was applied to separate FP precipitates from the spent electrolyte. The iron phosphate glass (IPG) powder, which is a compatible material for the immobilization of FP, was used as a filter medium. After filtration experiment, it was proven that insoluble FP could almost be completely removed from the spent electrolyte. Subsequently, we attempted to separate the dissolved FP from the spent electrolyte. The IPG was being used once again but this time as a sorbent instead. This is possible because the IPG has some unique characteristics, e.g., changing the valence of iron, which is one of its network modifiers due to its manufacturing temperature. Therefore, it would be likely to sorb some FP when the chemical condition of IPG is unstable. We produced three kinds of IPG under different manufacturing temperature and confirmed that those glasses could sorb FP as anticipated. According to the experimental result, its sorption efficiency of metal cations was attained at around 20–40%.Copyright

Separation of Lanthanoid Phosphates From the Spent Electrolyte of Pyroprocessing

This study is carried out to make the pyroprocessing hold a competitive advantage from the viewpoint of environmental load reduction and economical improvement. As one of the measures is to reduce the volume of the high-level radioactive waste, the phosphate conversion method is applied for removal of fission products from the melt as spent electrolyte in this paper. Though the removing target elements in the medium are alkali metals, alkaline earth metals and lanthanoid elements, only lanthanoid elements and lithium form the insoluble phosphates by reaction with Li3 PO4 or K3 PO4 . Therefore, as the first step, the precipitation experiment was carried out to observe the behaviours of elements which form the insoluble precipitates as double salts other than simple salts. Then the filtration was experimented to remove lanthanoid precipitates in the spent electrolyte using Fe2 O3 -P2 O5 glass system as a filtlation medium which is compatible material with the glassification. The result of separation of lanthanoid precipitates by filtration was effective and attained almost 100%.Copyright