Articles
  • Gamma radiation effect on a murataite ceramic doped with Sr and Cs

  • Aicha Maachoua,b,*, Salah Blizakb,c, Nour El Hayet Kamel#, Dalila Moudira, Badis Rahala, Ali Sarid, Yasmina Mouheba and Soumia Kamariza

  • aNuclear Research Center of Algiers, 2 Boulevard Frantz Fanon, P.O. Box: 399, Alger-RP, 16000, Algiers, Algeria
    bResearch Unit for Materials, Processes and Environment URMPE, M’hamed Bougara University of Boumerdes, P.O. Box: 35000, Boumerdes, Algeria
    cUniversity of M’sila, University Pole, Road Bourdj Bou Arreiridj, M’sila 28000 Algeria
    dNuclear Reserch Center of Birine, P.O. Box: 17200, Ain Oussera, Algeria
    #Retired from the Nuclear Research Center of Algiers, Co-supervisor of the Thesis, and Initiator of the Research Topic

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of gamma radiation, emitted by a Cobalt-60 source, on the structural modifications of a polysomatic ceramic of the Murataite type, intended for the containment of radioactive waste. The matrix is doped with Sr and Cs to simulate both radioactive alkaline and alkaline-earth isotopes. Samples are irradiated with a total dose of 105 Gy. After irradiation, the Archimedes density increases by 9.80% and 10.61% for undoped and Sr-doped ceramics, respectively. However, it decreases by 3.05% and 3.65% for Cs-doped ceramics and Sr-Cs co-doped ceramics, respectively. All measured values are below 4 g/cm3. For all materials, the main XRD identified phase is 5M Murataite. After irradiation, this phase decreases significantly for both Cs and (Sr,Cs) doped materials, revealing that the particles movements under irradiation favours Cs and Sr-Cs hosting in the Zincohoegbomite secondary formed phase, which growth significantly after irradiation. The SEM observations reveal the crystalline grains morphological features, with few micrometers’ sizes. The ceramics’ Vickers microhardness is not affected and ranges between 410 and 646 HV. In conclusion, both the reference material and Sr-Mur material composition are the optimum chemical composition and give the optimum murataites’ phase content after irradiation.


Keywords: Gamma-radiation, Murataite, Sintering, Characterizations

This Article

  • 2024; 25(5): 853-861

    Published on Oct 31, 2024

  • 10.36410/jcpr.2024.25.5.853
  • Received on Jul 4, 2024
  • Revised on Jul 27, 2024
  • Accepted on Sep 11, 2024

Correspondence to

  • Aicha Maachou

  • aNuclear Research Center of Algiers, 2 Boulevard Frantz Fanon, P.O. Box: 399, Alger-RP, 16000, Algiers, Algeria
    bResearch Unit for Materials, Processes and Environment URMPE, M’hamed Bougara University of Boumerdes, P.O. Box: 35000, Boumerdes, Algeria
    Tel : (213) 676 23 67 76 Fax: (213) 023 49 52 75

  • E-mail: a.maachou@crna.dz and a.maachou@univ-boumerdes.dz