Long-term behavior of refractory thorium-plutonium dioxide solid solutions

Abstract

The long-term behavior of Th0.87Pu0.13O2 was examined in nitric acid concentrations. The normalized dissolution rates after 3380 days, range from (1.4 ± 0.2) × 10−6 g m−2 d−1 in 5 M HNO3 down to (3.2 ± 0.4) × 10−8 g m−2 d−1 in 10−3 M HNO3, which confirms the high chemical durability of this solid solution. The amounts of plutonium measured in solution lead to 0.9% and 2.1% of dissolved solid in 1 M and 5 M HNO3, respectively. In such conditions, the time required to reach the full dissolution of the material varies from 430 years (5 M HNO3) to 18,000 years (10−3 M HNO3). Moreover, the partial order related to the proton activity (n = 0.45 ± 0.03) suggests that the dissolution is mainly driven by surface reactions occurring at the solid/liquid interface. The characterization of the leached samples by SEM shows small microstructural modifications (i.e. detachment of crystallites) and the absence of neoformed phase while from PXRD, the unit cell parameter and crystallite size are not significantly affected.