Radiation damage of alkali borate glasses for application in safe nuclear waste disposal

The Electron Paramagnetic Resonance technique has been used to study the time decay of paramagnetic species induced by gamma irradiation and the radiation hardness of different alkali borate glasses for their application in safe nuclear waste disposal. Glasses with different composition have been prepared by conventional melt-quenching. Glass compositions have been chosen to elucidate the role of different alkali cations and of aluminium oxide on the borate glass network. The paramagnetic states detected in these glasses have been attributed, according to the literature, to the formation of hole centers associated with threefold coordinated boron. The results indicate that the time decay trend of the different glasses is slow and that the constant decay does not appear related to the chemical composition. Moreover, the undesired strong fading of the radiation-induced signal during the first 24 h after irradiation, observable in silicate glasses has not been detected. Although no species detectable by a X band spectrometer have been generated, the interaction of lithium borate glasses with air seem to accelerate the system decay rate. Annealing was finally performed and optimized, investigating the correlation between the chemical composition and the radiation damage recovery.