Materials Sciences Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai, Ibaraki, 319-1195, Japan.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi, 441-8580, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jun 21;13(1):10071. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-37157-2.
We performed a preliminary study of neutron resonance absorption imaging to investigate the spatial distribution of constituent elements in borosilicate glasses containing simulated high-level radioactive waste, in which elemental inhomogeneities affect the physical and chemical stabilities of the glass. Dips generated by the resonance absorptions of Rh, Pd, Na, Gd, Cs, and Sm were observed in the neutron transmission spectra of the glass samples. The spatial distributions of these elements were obtained from the neutron transmission images at the resonance energies. The distributions of Rh and Pd visualized the sedimentation of these platinum group elements. In contrast, the lanthanides (Gd and Sm) and Cs were uniformly dispersed. These results show that neutron resonance absorption imaging is a promising tool for characterizing borosilicate glasses and investigating the vitrification mechanism of high-level radioactive waste.
我们进行了中子共振吸收成像的初步研究，以调查含有模拟高放废物的硼硅酸盐玻璃中组成元素的空间分布，其中元素不均匀性会影响玻璃的物理和化学稳定性。在玻璃样品的中子透射谱中观察到 Rh、Pd、Na、Gd、Cs 和 Sm 的共振吸收产生的吸收谷。这些元素的空间分布是从共振能下的中子透射图像中获得的。Rh 和 Pd 的分布显示了这些铂族元素的沉降。相比之下，镧系元素（Gd 和 Sm）和 Cs 则均匀分散。这些结果表明，中子共振吸收成像是一种有前途的硼硅酸盐玻璃表征工具，并可用于研究高放废物的玻璃固化机制。
