Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 September 2012
We have characterized the corrosion behavior of several Defense WasteProcessing Facility (DWPF) reference waste glasses by conducting staticdissolution tests with crushed glasses. Glass dissolution rates werecalculated from measured B concentrations in tests conducted for up to fiveyears. The dissolution rates of all glasses increased significantly aftercertain alteration phases precipitated. Calculation of the dissolution rateswas complicated by the decrease in the available surface area as the glassdissolves. We took the loss of surface area into account by modeling theparticles to be spheres, then extracting from the short-term test resultsthe dissolution rate corresponding to a linear decrease in the radius ofspherical particles. The measured extent of dissolution in tests conductedfor longer times was less than predicted with this linear dissolution model.This indicates that advanced stages of corrosion are affected by anotherprocess besides dissolution, which we believe to be associated with adecrease in the precipitation rate of the alteration phases. These resultsshow that the dissolution rate measured soon after the formation of certainalteration phases provides an upper limit for the long-term dissolutionrate, and can be used to determine a bounding value for the source term forradionuclide release from waste glasses. The long-term dissolution ratesmeasured in tests at 20,000 m−1 at 90°C in tuff groundwater at pHvalues near 12 are about 0.2,0.07, and 0.04 g/(m2•d) for theEnvironmental Assessment glass and glasses made with SRL 131 and SRL 202frits, respectively.