Radiation effects on volumetric change and corrosion for simulated radioactive waste glass

Simulated radioactive waste glasses were irradiated, using three kinds of facilities: a high-voltage electron microscope, an electron accelerator, and a nuclear reactor. Radiation effects on microstructural change, density change, annealing properties of the density change, and leaching properties were studied by the authors and are reviewed in this paper. Waste glass swelled or shrank at most 0.6%, depending on the kind of glass when irradiated in a nuclear reactor with ¹⁰B(n, α)⁷Li reaction up to a fluence of 6.6 × 10²⁵ reaction/m³. Helium bubble was observed in the irradiated glass. The cumulative irradiation is roughly equivalent to irradiation during a few tens of thousand years after disposal. The irradiated waste glasses swelled at most 0.5% when thermally annealed above the temperature of 620K.