Perlite for permanent confinement of cesium

Abstract

We present the potential use of expanded perlite, a metastable amorphous hydrated aluminium silicate, as a permanent medium for the long-term confinement of cesium. The method requires simply a loading by mixing an aqueous cesium nitrate solution and expanded perlite at 300 K followed by densification by sintering. The formation of pollucite, CsAlSi2O6, a naturally occurring mineral phase, upon careful heat treatment is demonstrated by X-ray diffraction. Leaching tests on the resulting glass-ceramics reveal a very low Cs departure of 0.5 mg m−2 d−1.