Cement As a Waste Form for Nuclear Fission Products: The Case of ⁹⁰Sr and Its Daughters
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cement_postprint.pdf
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Author(s)
Kohanoff, Jorge J.
Correa, Alfredo A.
Caro, Alfredo
Dezerald, Lucile
Pellenq, Roland Jm
Ulm, Franz-Josef
Conesa-Labastida, Andres
Date Issued
November 2015
Journal
Environmental Science & Technology
Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Citation
Dezerald, Lucile et al. “Cement As a Waste Form for Nuclear Fission Products: The Case of ⁹⁰Sr and Its Daughters.” Environmental Science & Technology 49, 22 (October 2015): 13676–13683 © 2015 American Chemical Society
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
One of the main challenges faced by the nuclear industry is the long-term confinement of nuclear waste. Because it is inexpensive and easy to manufacture, cement is the material of choice to store large volumes of radioactive materials, in particular the low-level medium-lived fission products. It is therefore of utmost importance to assess the chemical and structural stability of cement containing radioactive species. Here, we use ab initio calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) to study the effects of90Sr insertion and decay in C-S-H (calcium-silicate-hydrate) in order to test the ability of cement to trap and hold this radioactive fission product and to investigate the consequences of its β-decay on the cement paste structure. We show that ⁹⁰Sr is stable when it substitutes the Ca²⁺ ions in C-S-H, and so is its daughter nucleus ⁹⁰Y after β-decay. Interestingly,⁹⁰Zr, daughter of ⁹⁰Y and final product in the decay sequence, is found to be unstable compared to the bulk phase of the element at zero K but stable when compared to the solvated ion in water. Therefore, cement appears as a suitable waste form for ⁹⁰Sr storage.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1021/ACS.EST.5B02609
