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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
Borosilicate glasses are proposed as waste form for the final disposal of High Level Waste (HLW) in salt formations by the Federal Republic of Germany. To check the safety of this waste form the corrosion of the non-radioactive borosilicate glass R7T7 in salt brines has been studied in collaboration with the Hahn-Meitner-Institut, Berlin. Temperatures up to 190°C and S/V ratios (surface area to solution volume ratio) between 3.3 and 1000 m were applied. S/V was varied by the addition of glass powder. The results presented here concern the characterization of the surface composition of the corroded glass (corroded at 190°C in a brine containing high amounts of MgCl-, called Q brine in this paper) after removing the reaction product layer. The corrosion conditions were chosen to obtain samples typical of long term (silica saturation) corrosion. The surface composition was analyzed quantitatively by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) by using external standard glasses with a composition similar to R7T7. Additionally scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed.