Rapid immobilization of simulated radioactive soil waste by microwave sintering

•The radioactive contaminated soil is fast disposed by microwave technology.•Simulated nuclides are immobilized and uniformly distributed in glass matrix.•The density of vitrification matrix ranges from 2.813g/cm3 to 3.215g/cm3.•The normalized leach rate of Nd is less than ∼10−4g/(m2day) after 42days. A rapid and efficient method is particularly necessary in the timely disposal of seriously radioactive contaminated soil. In this paper, a series of simulated radioactive soil waste containing different contents of neodymium oxide (3–25wt.%) has been successfully vitrified by microwave sintering at 1300°C for 30min. The microstructures, morphology, element distribution, density and chemical durability of as obtained vitrified forms have been analyzed. The results show that the amorphous structure, homogeneous element distribution, and regular density improvement are well kept, except slight cracks emerge on the magnified surface for the 25wt.% Nd2O3-containing sample. Moreover, all the vitrified forms exhibit excellent chemical durability, and the leaching rates of Nd are kept as ∼10−4–10−6g/(m2day) within 42days. This demonstrates a potential application of microwave sintering in radioactive contaminated soil disposal.