Dr. Hanno Zur Loye, Center for Hierarchical Waste Form Materials and Savannah River National Laboratory, University of Southern Carolina

Host: Dr. Kovnir

A nuclear waste form is a stable, solid matrix for the immobilization of radioactive and hazardous constituents present in nuclear waste. There are a variety of waste forms currently in use and many more being studied for potential use. Or center is developing new materials as potential waste forms. To achieve this goal we are preparing and testing numerous actinide containing materials. I will present some of our efforts focussing on the crystal growth of uranium and transuranium containing phases via two different crystal growth routes, mild hydrothermal and high temperature solution flux growth and their evaluation as potential waste forms. The mild hydrothermal route works extremely well for crystallizing complex fluoride phases, such as Na3GaUIV6F30, Na3AlNpIV6F30, and Na3FePuIV6F30, while the high temperature flux route works well for crystallizing oxide phases, such as Cs2PuIVSi6O15 and Na2PuVO2(BO3). The synthesis and structures of these phases as well as a series of new chalcogenides will be discussed, along with our appraoch of identifying potential compositions that we can pursue synthetically.