[alpha]-Decay damage effects in curium-doped titanate ceramic containing sodium-free high-level nuclear waste

A polyphase titanate ceramic incorporating sodium-free simulated high-level nuclear waste was doped with 0.91 wt% of [sup 224]Cm to accelerate the effects of long-term self-irradiation arising from [alpha] decays. The ceramic included three main constituent minerals: hollandite, perovskite, and zirconolite, with some minor phases. Although hollandite showed the broadening of its X-ray diffraction lines and small lattice parameter changes during damage in growth, the unit cell was substantially unaltered. Perovskite and zirconolite, which are the primary hosts of curium, showed 2.7% and 2.6% expansions, respectively, of their unit cell volumes after a dose of 12 [times] 10[sup 17] [alpha] decays[center dot]g[sup [minus]1]. Volume swelling due to damage in growth caused an exponential (almost linear) decrease in density, which reached 1.7% after a dose of 12.4 [times] 10[sup 17] [alpha] decays[center dot]g[sup [minus]1]. Leach tests on samples that had incurred doses of 2.0 [times] 10[sup 17] and 4.5 [times] 10[sup 17] [alpha] decays[center dot]g[sup [minus]1] showed that the rates of dissolution of cesium and barium were similar to analogous leach rates from the equivalent cold ceramic, while strontium and calcium leach rates were 2--15 times higher. Although the cerium, molybdenum, strontium, and calcium leach rates in the present material were similar to those in the curium-doped sodium-bearing titanate ceramic reported previously, the cesium leach rate was 3--8 times lower.