Abstract
An approach to nuclear waste fixation is to incorporate radioactive elements in multicomponent oxide glasses containing silica, alumina, boron and alkali. For long-lived nucleides, a new alternative approach is considered in order to evaluate durability of new matrices. High silica glasses present high chemical durability and stability associated with strength and thermal shock resistance. A process is described in which a porous, partially sintered silica aerogel is used as a host matrix for actinides. The porous aerogel is soaked in a solution containing the wastes in nitrate salt form. Neodymium oxide is used to simulate the actinide oxides. We investigate the effect of the porous network features (mechanical strength, pore size) on the ability of the material to soak up the simulating salts. Composite materials (silica glass+simulating oxide) have been synthesized with Nd 2O 3 content close to 10 wt%.
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