Topic: Ceramic and Glass-Ceramic Wasteforms for Actinide Disposition
Speaker: Prof. Longqing Chen, The Pennsylvania State University
Time: 10:00, October 30, 2017
Venue: Room 402, Building of State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Wushan Campus

Abstract：A considerable amount of nuclear radioactive waste are generated from the nuclear industry. Among them, the high level nuclear waste, especially actinide, is highly toxic with extremely long half-life. The immobilisation into the wasteforms is required for environmental safety reason.
Zirconolite glass-ceramic wasteform is the potential host phases for actinide disposition (e.g. Plutonium). The crystalline phase zirconolite (CaZrTi2O7) in glass-ceramic acts as the host for plutonium, whilst the glass matrix is intended to digest the remainder of the residue. In the present work, we focused the radiation and dissolution behaviour of the zirconolite glass-ceramic.
Meanwhile, the synthesis of some pyrochlore and zirconolite ceramics is of our interest. The waste loading, the yield of the target phase, the local environment of actinide element and the microstructure are discussed on the example of CaUTi2O7.

Biography：Shikuan Sun obtained his Bachelor degree at South China University of Technology (SCUT) in 2007 and afterwards he was awarded his PhD in 2012 from Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 2015, Shikuan Sun undertook a post-doctoral research position working for the Immobilisation Science Laboratory, University of Sheffield under the supervision of Professor Neil Hyatt. Currently, Shikuan is working on the EPSRC project of ‘Decommissioning, Immobilisation and Storage solutions for Nuclear Waste Inventories’. His research interests are: 1. Wasteforms for radioactive waste disposal; 2. Structure-property relations in ceramic materials.