Digital Scholarship@UNLV

Title

Evaluation of Fluorapatite as a Waste-Form Material: Third Quarter Report, March 1- May 31, 2004

Authors

Dennis W. Lindle, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Oliver Hemmers, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

5-31-2004

First page number:

1

Last page number:

3

Abstract

Fluorapatite, fluorinated calcium phosphate, has been identified as a potential matrix for the entombment of the zirconium fluoride fission product waste stream from the proposed FLEX process. If the efficacy of fluorapatite-based waste-storage can be demonstrated, then new and potentially more-efficient options for handling and separating high-level wastes, based on fluoride-salt extraction, will become feasible. This proposal will develop a dual-path research project to develop a process to fabricate a synthetic fluorapatite waste form for the ZrF₄, FP waste stream, characterize the waste form, examine its performance under environmental conditions, and correlate the behavior of the waste form with natural analogs. Characterization of the material will be accomplished through probing the molecular-scale electronic and geometric structure of the materials in order to relate them to macroscopic properties, with the goal of developing techniques to evaluate and predict the performance of different waste-form materials. Time and funding permitting, other waste forms for the zirconium fluoride, fission product salt waste stream will be examined and benchmarked against the fluorapatite matrix baseline.

Highlights of Accomplishments:

1. Synthezised Sr containing hydroxyapatite using the reflux method and acquired SEM, EDS and XPS data for these samples.

2. More samples of Sr containing hydroxyapatite synthezised using various lengths of refluxing time and stirring to check the thermodynamic effects on the crystalline character/shape of the samples.

3. First samples of fluorapatite and Sr-containing fluorapatite synthesized and analyzed with IR spectroscopy.

4. Synthesized Zn containing hydroxyapatite using the reflux method and obtained IR data.

Keywords

Calcium phosphate; Fluorides; Fluorination; Hydroxyapatite; Phosphate minerals; Radioactive wastes — Storage; Separation (Technology); Strontium; Zinc; Zirconium compounds

Controlled Subject

Radioactive wastes--Storage; Separation (Technology); Zirconium compounds

Disciplines

Chemistry | Oil, Gas, and Energy | Physical Chemistry

File Format

pdf

File Size

303 KB

Language

English

Rights

COPYRIGHT UNDETERMINED. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/

Repository Citation

Lindle, D. W., Hemmers, O. (2004). Evaluation of Fluorapatite as a Waste-Form Material: Third Quarter Report, March 1- May 31, 2004. 1-3.
Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/hrc_trp_separations/54