Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
Considerable water uptake, formation of free liquid and leaching of activity may take place if cemented waste materials containing soluble salts are exposed to high humidity air. Another feature of importance for the structural stability of some materials is cyclic variations between water saturation and dry-out periods. The phenomena have been investigated on a laboratory scale using simulated waste in the form of cemented sodium nitrate or ion-exchange resins. Spherical samples are found to be valuable for simultaneous determination of the leaching of major components, mainly sodium, and the water uptake and swelling obtained from weight-increase measurements for the samples weighed in air and immersed in water.