Neptunium in high level radioactive wastes has to be retained in glasses through geological period from the point of biological toxicity for more than million years. Neptunium-237 diffusion in borosilicate glass with simulated wastes of 26.4w/0 was investigated in the temperature range of 400600°C by the use of α-degradation method. The energy loss rate dE/dx of α-particles, which is necessary in order to determine diffusion coefficients by the α-degradation method, was calculated for the waste glass.
The penetration depth of a-particle with 4.787 MeV from
237Np was 17 μm, which gives a limit in applying the α-degradation method in the waste glass. The temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient of Np in the waste glass was given by
D
Np=3.67 exp(-55, 900/RT) (cm
2/s), in which the activation energy of the diffusion was 55.9 kcal/mol. It was clarified that Np is one of the elements with the lowest mobility in waste glasses.
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