Glass Materials Road Map for Radioactive Waste Immobilization

We analyzed literature data on the composition of 479 glasses used to stabilize radioactive wastes, covering a wide range and including 51 oxides and few fluorides. The most common glass constituents included SiO₂, B₂O₃, Na₂O, and Fe₂O₃ in varying amounts, with a predominance of borosilicate glasses. Seven families of waste radioactive glasses were observed, including borosilicates, silicates, boroaluminosilicates, iron phosphates, aluminosilicates, sodium iron phosphates, and boroaluminates. These data were used to estimate an average composition associated with a sodium borosilicate glass. Multivariate exploratory methods were used to analyze and classify the compositions of the waste radioactive glasses using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical clustering. Four main clusters were observed, the largest with 417 glasses, mainly silicates, borosilicates, aluminosilicates, and boroaluminosilicates. The results of this work have shown that it is possible to map radioactive waste glasses according to their composition, promoting a road map for future applications with specific properties.