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An Overview of potential waste hosts: Apatites and nuclear future Tricalcium Phosphate
Author:	Jay, Eleanor
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This article is based on the author's prize-winning presentation at the Universities' Nuclear Technology Forum meeting in 2009 and is an account of her post-graduate work at Imperial College, London. Although much waste from civil industries is earmarked for vitreous (HLW) or cementitious (ILW) waste forms, some waste streams include detrimental species such as halides that cannot be adequately encapsulated in traditional waste forms. A solution may lie in considering natural waste host analogues. In Gabon, West Africa, there is a natural phenomenon; a deposit of uranium minerals of sufficient quantity and surrounding rocks of an appropriate porosity, that gave rise to the formation of a natural nuclear reactor. This reactor was active, and produced hundreds of kilowatts of heat, for what could have been millions of years. The area is remarkable not only for the presence of a nuclear reactor, but also the fact that the highly radioactive waste products have stayed within the vicinity of the reactor without any installed containment systems. Extraordinarily, after all this time, waste species have migrated only a few metres from their source. Further investigation into this area has revealed that the surrounding minerals are all phosphate based. Phosphate minerals are of great importance in a diverse range of fields; primarily due to their structure and chemistry providing the possibility that many different species can substitute into the structure. They are therefore attractive as long-term stable nuclear waste forms; they can incorporate a wide-range of waste species, including those which have limited solubility, in more conventional waste forms.

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Price:	£21.28 (£21.28 inc.)
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