Currently in the UK, composite blends of Portland cement (PC) and blastfurnace slag (up to 90%) are commonly used for the encapsulation of low and intermediate level wastes. The high volume replacement of PC is considered necessary in order to to reduce the high heat generation resulting from cement hydration in 500 litre waste packages. While suited to the majority of waste streams, the high pH environment in such systems (usually around 12.5 -13), will cause the corrosion of certain waste metals such as aluminium. Since aluminium is only passive between pH4 - 8.5, the use of an alternative low-pH cement system could serve to reduce/inhibit the corrosion. However, before such cements can be considered, two main research problems must be addressed, as follows: (1) quantitative evaluation of alternative cement systems based on their corrosion performance with aluminium; (2) high heat generation due to the rapid rate of hydration. The research in this thesis was thus divided into two strands, as follows: (1) The design and development of a novel, scientifically robust testing facility for the quantitative monitoring of aluminium corrosion in cement pastes; (2) the development of novel cement composites based on weakly alkaline calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement for the encapsulation of aluminium from nuclear wastes. The output from this research is considered to be of interest to the UK nuclear industry.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:678940 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | McCague, Colum |
| Publisher | Queen's University Belfast |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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