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Scientific Advances in Nuclear Waste Management
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Scientific Advances in Nuclear Waste Management

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "B4: Nuclear Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 21 July 2025 | Viewed by 652

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Yongliang Xiong

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Nuclear Waste Disposal Research & Analysis, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), 1515 Eubank Boulevard SE, Albuquerque, NM 87123, USA
Interests: lithium-ion batteries; recycling LIB cathode materials; recycling LIB anode materials; lithium-ion battery electrolytes; recycling of lead–acid batteries; thermodynamics of multiple-component solutions with high ionic strengths; nuclear waste management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nuclear energy is essential and important to modern society. Furthermore, because of its high energy density and carbon-neutrality, it plays a key role in addressing the problem of climate change owing to the release of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel energy. In the generation of civil nuclear energy, nuclear waste management including the geological disposal of nuclear waste is a key component in the nuclear energy fuel cycle. Nuclear waste management covers a broad range of scientific fields from the mining of uranium and thorium ore deposits, to the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel, to the immobilization of solid and liquid low-level to high-level nuclear waste (i.e., LLW to HLW, respectively), and to the final disposal of nuclear waste in geological repositories. In defence-related nuclear activities, similar nuclear waste streams are also generated. In this Special Issue, scientific advances in nuclear waste management are presented.

Potential topics for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Management of uranium and/or thorium mining waste;
  • Management of radioactive waste related to the extraction of critical minerals from various feedstocks such as monazite ores and produced waters;
  • Reprocessing of used nuclear fuel;
  • Technologies for the immobilization of nuclear waste at various levels ranging from low (LLW), to intermediate (ILW), and to high (HLW);
  • Waste-form development and characterization;
  • Siting studies for geological repositories;
  • Buffer materials for engineered buffer systems (EBSs): their development and characterization;
  • Development, verification, and validation of source-term model for radionuclides;
  • Geochemical analogue studies of source-term elements such as U, Th, and Re that can be applied to elucidate the geochemical behaviours of source-term radionuclides in the near- and far-fields of geological repositories.

Dr. Yongliang Xiong
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • used nuclear fuels
  • waste forms
  • high-level nuclear waste
  • source-term models
  • geological repository
  • near-field of geological repository

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 10109 KiB  
Article
Guiding Principles for Geochemical/Thermodynamic Model Development and Validation in Nuclear Waste Disposal: A Close Examination of Recent Thermodynamic Models for H+—Nd3+—NO3−(—Oxalate) Systems
by Yongliang Xiong and Yifeng Wang
Energies 2025, 18(7), 1650; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18071650 - 26 Mar 2025
Viewed by 389
Abstract
Development of a defensible source-term model (STM), usually a thermodynamical model for radionuclide solubility calculations, is critical to a performance assessment (PA) of a geologic repository for nuclear waste disposal. Such a model is generally subjected to rigorous regulatory scrutiny. In this article, [...] Read more.
Development of a defensible source-term model (STM), usually a thermodynamical model for radionuclide solubility calculations, is critical to a performance assessment (PA) of a geologic repository for nuclear waste disposal. Such a model is generally subjected to rigorous regulatory scrutiny. In this article, we highlight key guiding principles for STM model development and validation in nuclear waste management. We illustrate these principles by closely examining three recently developed thermodynamic models with the Pitzer formulism for aqueous H+—Nd3+—NO3−(—oxalate) systems in a reverse alphabetical order of the authors: the XW model developed by Xiong and Wang, the OWC model developed by Oakes et al., and the GLC model developed by Guignot et al., among which the XW model deals with trace activity coefficients for Nd(III), while the OWC and GLC models are for concentrated Nd(NO3)3 electrolyte solutions. The principles highlighted include the following: (1) Principle 1. Validation against independent experimental data: A model should be validated against experimental data or field observations that have not been used in the original model parameterization. We tested the XW model against multiple independent experimental data sets including electromotive force (EMF), solubility, water vapor, and water activity measurements. The results show that the XW model is accurate and valid for its intended use for predicting trace activity coefficients and therefore Nd solubility in repository environments. (2) Principle 2. Testing for relevant and sensitive variables: Solution pH is such a variable for an STM and easily acquirable. All three models are checked for their ability to predict pH conditions in Nd(NO3)3 electrolyte solutions. The OWC model fails to provide a reasonable estimate for solution pH conditions, thus casting serious doubt on its validity for a source-term calculation. In contrast, both the XW and GLC models predict close-to-neutral pH values, in agreement with experimental measurements. (3) Principle 3. Honoring physical constraints: Upon close examination, it is found that the Nd(III)-NO3 association schema in the OWC model suffers from two shortcomings. Firstly, its second stepwise stability constant for Nd(NO3)2+ (log K2) is much higher than the first stepwise stability constant for NdNO32+ (log K1), thus violating the general rule of (log K2–log K1) < 0, or K1K2>1. Secondly, the OWC model predicts abnormally high activity coefficients for Nd(NO3)2+ (up to ~900) as the concentration increases. (4) Principle 4. Minimizing degrees of freedom for model fitting: The OWC model with nine fitted parameters is compared with the GLC model with five fitted parameters, as both models apply to the concentrated region for Nd(NO3)3 electrolyte solutions. The latter appears superior to the former because the latter can fit osmotic coefficient data equally well with fewer model parameters. The work presented here thus illustrates the salient points of geochemical model development, selection, and validation in nuclear waste management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Scientific Advances in Nuclear Waste Management)
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