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Nano to begin drilling next week in Illinois
It’s been a good month for Nano Nuclear in the state of Illinois. On October 7, the Office of Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that the company would be awarded $6.8 million from the Reimagining Energy and Vehicles in Illinois Act to help fund the development of its new regional research and development facility in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook.
William L. Ebert, John K. Bates
Nuclear Technology | Volume 104 | Number 3 | December 1993 | Pages 372-384
Technical Paper | Special Issue on Waste Management / Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A34898
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Static leach tests have been performed at glass surface area/leachant volume (SA/V) ratios of 10, 340, 2000, and 20 000 m−1 to assess the effects of the SA/V on the mechanism and rate of the glass reaction. Tests were performed using actinide-doped borosilicate waste glasses [Savannah River Laboratory (SRL) 131 and SRL 202] to monitor the distribution of released radionuclides in tests at different SA/V. Solution results show the major effect of the SA/V to be dilution of reaction products. Differences in the pH and silicic acid concentrations attained in tests at different SA/V then affect the reaction rate. Tests at low SA/V maintain leachate pH values similar to the initial leachant, while tests at higher SA/V result in higher leachate pH values being attained due to ion-exchange reactions. Transuranics released as the glass corrodes may exist in the leachate in concentrations far above their solubility limits by sorbing onto colloids, although the colloids may eventually settle out of solution. Transuranics also sorb onto the steel reaction vessel. The glass reaction progress can be characterized by three stages: (a) an initial stage where the reaction rate depends on the leachant pH, (b) an intermediate stage where the reaction slows toward a minimum rate as the leachate solution approaches “saturation,” and (c) a long-term stage where the reaction rate may be affected by the formation of secondary phases that control the solution chemistry. Tests at different SA/V cannot always be compared directly because the dominant reaction step and the observed reaction stage (initial, intermediate, or long-term) may not be the same.