Indo - UK Civil Nuclear Collaboration on Damage and Radiation Effects in Amorphous Materials (DREAM)

Completed

Nuclear Fission and Fusion(Nuclear Fission, Nuclear supporting technologies)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr NC Hyatt
Engineering Materials
University of Sheffield

Standard

EPSRC

01 June 2011

31 May 2015

48 months

£217,384

Materials sciences

Yorkshire & Humberside

Energy : Energy

Dr NC Hyatt, Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield

Professor B Lee, Materials, Imperial College London
Professor WM Rainforth, Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield

Dr MC Stennett, University of Sheffield

The overarching objective of this proposal is to initiate an India-UK collaboration to lead development of understanding of radiation damage processes in nuclear waste glasses and glass composite materials. UK collaborators will contribute in two principal areas: provision of expertise in application of X-ray spectroscopy methods to radiation damaged materials and application of advanced analytical electron microscopy to glass and glass composite characterisation. Indian collaborators will bring many years of expertise in preparation and characterisation of radionuclide-containing nuclear glasses by electron spin and positron annihilation spectroscopies. This project will access world class central laboratories for materials irradiation and synchrotron radiation in the partner countries. The outcome of this collaboration will be to provide the fundamental understanding required to develop predictive models for performance of radiation damaged glasses in geological disposal facilities.The research programme will systematically investigate the potential for radiation induced phase separation and the impact of alpha-recoil damage on the structure, and speciation of redox active elements, in glass systems of relevance to nuclear waste immobilisation. Electron irradiation and ion beam implantation experiments will be performed to simulate the effects of beta- and alpha-decay, a combination of bulk spectroscopic and nano-scale chemical and imaging probes will be applied to determine the nature of point defects, phase separation and change in network polymerisation induced by different damage modes. We will also investigate the potential deleterious effects of radiation damage on glass dissolution rate through simple but informative alteration experiments. The proposed research is divided into three well defined research packages, with the following aims:Work Package 1: Radiation damage induced phase separation in model nuclear waste glassesThe aim of this WP is to develop an understanding of the mechanism of phase separation in nuclear waste glasses, under the influence of combined electron irradiation and radiogenic heating.Work Package 2: Radiation induced structural modification in model nuclear waste glassesThe aim of this WP is to develop an understanding of the effect of alpha-recoil damage on glass structure, using ion beam implantation combined with XAS and TEM.Work Package 3: Impact of radiation damage on dissolution of model nuclear waste glassesThe aim of this WP is to determine potential deleterious effects of radiation damage on glass dissolution, using internationally standardised short term experiments

22/10/10