Studies on immobilization of thorium in barium borosilicate glass

The barium borosilicate glass (BBS) matrix has shown considerable solubility of ThO2 at 1000 °C. As seen by X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and Electron probe micro analysis (EPMA) up to 15.86 wt% of ThO2 could be dissolved in this matrix. The homogeneity of thoria loaded glass was convincingly ascertained by EPMA. Attempts to load more than 16 wt% ThO2 led to the phase separation of crystalline phases identified as major phase of ThO2 and minor percentage of ThSiO4 phase with altogether different morphologies, as seen by XRD. Interestingly, the back scattered images of thorite crystals point towards the presence of chemical zoning. The results being reported in this paper are of interest especially with respect to immobilization of other actinides in borosilicate glass matrix.