Patent ID: 7550645

Claim:
A process for immobilizing wastes in glass which achieves a high concentration of waste constituents (waste loading) comprising: combining a waste stream having one or more of radionuclides, hazardous elements, and hazardous components with fluorine and glass-forming components in proportion to achieve a mixture capable of forming a highly polymerized borosilicate glass consisting essentially of about 1 to about 1.3 mole parts of a combination of monovalent cation oxides (R 2 O) and divalent cation oxides (RO), about 1 to about 1.4 mole parts trivalent cation oxides (R 2 O 3 ), and about 1.2 to about 4.2 mole parts of a combination of tetravalent cation oxides (RO 2 ) and pentavalent cation oxides (R 2 O 5 ), wherein SiO 2 is present in an amount greater than 30 weight percent, B 2 O 3 is present in an amount between 8.7 and 15.3 weight percent, Al 2 O 3 present in an amount between 7 and 15.1 weight percent, CaO is present in an amount between 0.2 and 2.3 weight percent, and fluorine is present in an amount between about 1 to about 3 weight percent; melting the mixture to form a melted glass with integrated waste; and solidifying the melted glass with integrated waste by cooling to form said highly polymerized borosilicate glass.