Investigation of Radiation Damage in Trombay Nuclear Waste Glasses by ESR and Photoluminescence Techniques

Electron spin resonance (ESR) and photoluminescence (PL) techniques were utilized to investigate the gamma radiation induced changes occurring in the Trombay research reactor nuclear waste glasses. Fe and Eu were doped in the glass samples which acted as local probes. From these studies it was seen that upon irradiation various types of defect centers namely boron oxygen hole centers, E’ centers, silicon hole centers, oxygen deficient centers etc. were formed in the glass. Further, contrary to the other waste glass compositions reported, no change was observed in the Eu oxidation state after irradiation. In case of the Fe doped glass, it was observed that, for glasses irradiated with same radiation dose, the radiation induced defect centers decreased with increase in the Fe content in the glass. Although the radiation lead to formation of various defect centers, the overall glass network remained unaffected to a large extent.