Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2011
Surface layers are a common feature of leached surfaces of borosilicate waste glasses. Layers are also observed upon weathering of volcanic glasses[l] and of silicate minerals[2]. The question of whether these layers can protect the glass against further attack by decreasing the leach rate is stïll a subject of controversy[3]. Both in geochemical work[4] and in work on waste forms [5,6], surface layers are attributed a protective function, and the stability of leached, million years old volcanic glasses[1] may be due to the presence of palagonite, a thin (≤100 μm) alteration layer, which forms in a few years but does not seem to increase in thickness after this time. The present study investigates the effects of layer formation on leaching kinetics of a borosilicate waste glass containing 20 wt.% LWR-type simulated waste oxides.