Borosilicate glasses for nuclear waste imobilisation

Almost from the dawn of the nuclear age, mankind has had to face the proble m of immobilising highly radioactive nuclear waste. Borosilicate glasses ha ve shown that they have a unique blend of processing and product characteri stics which make them nearly ideal for this application. In the United Stat es the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) near Aiken, South Carolina is the free world's largest facility for the immobilisation of high level n uclear waste in borosilicate glass. Although borosilicate glass has proven an excellent choice for this application, fundamental research to identify the structural role boron oxides play in waste glasses as a function of gla ss composition could pay important dividends. Such work could shed new ligh t on glass durability. Potentially, it could lend to a method to reliably p redict phase separation of boron containing glasses. It might also point th e way toward optimising the amount of waste components which can be dissolv ed into glass.