INTERACTIONS BETWEEN GLASS MELT AND LIQUID
METAL DURING HIGH TEMPERATURE PROCESS

J. Agullo, A. Laplace, D. Perret, S. Mure, I. Hugon

Keywords: vitrification, molten glass, liquid metal, redox, waste immobilization

The PIVIC project is led by Orano, in collaboration with CEA and ANDRA, for the treatment and conditioning of solid technological waste coming from MOX producing plants. The project aims to develop a process (PIVIC process) in order to both treat and condition in metallic containers this intermediate-level long-lived radioactive waste, mainly made up of metal and organic matter (plastic).

During the high temperature elaboration process, the liquid metal phase interacts strongly with the molten glass bearing actinides surrogates (redox reactions, crystallizations, dissolutions...) and has an impact on both glass composition and microstructure. The process environment is highly reducing and volatility of alkaline elements may occur. Furthermore, due to the coexistence of metal and glass liquid phases, aluminum from the metal phase can be oxidized, leading to an increase of glass alumina content. In order to reach good process reliability and to master the final conditioning material, such reactions have to be controlled along with a good knowledge of both phases behavior and of actinides surrogates localization is necessary.

This paper presents the impact of metal-glass composition, temperature and
actinides surrogates on the final conditioning matrix.

Acknowledgement: PIVIC Project is supported by the French government program
“Programme d’Investissements d’Avenir”

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