New Method to Predict Behavior of Glasses Honored with American Ceramic Society Award

Summary

Existing thermochemical models of glasses containing high level radioactive waste are inadequate to allow prediction of key properties of these glasses, such as their behavior in the melters used for producing glasses for storage of the wastes. Research supported by the Environmental Management Science Program (EMSP) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has led to improved models of high level waste glasses that will find application in both the production of the glasses and in studying the potential for loss of radionuclides through leaching from the glasses. The scientist directing this project, Dr. Theodore Besmann of the ORNL Surface Processing and Mechanics Group, will receive the Spriggs Phase Equilibria Award from the American Ceramic Society at its Annual Meeting in April 2004 for his research paper titled “Thermochemical Modeling of Oxide Glasses,” which is based on his EMSP-funded research.