Nuclear power is a topic that stirs emotions and sometimes causes controversy. It has generated many myths throughout the years, resulting in misinformation, fear and uneasiness in affected communities. Despite persistent concerns surrounding nuclear power, such as the belief that there is no solution for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel, a large body of scientific research indicates otherwise.
Vitrification, a process that converts nuclear waste or other hazardous wastes into glass, offers a potentially desirable, long-term storage solution that is resistant to corrosion and leaching. This technique, used for over four decades worldwide, involves mixing waste with glass-forming chemicals in a furnace and solidifying the molten glass in canisters.
Despite the extensive research that has been carried out, much remains unknown about the behavior and properties of nuclear glass. To better understand this and to inform the academic community and general public, Professor Brian O’Driscoll collaborated with chemistry colleagues and partners from the National Nuclear Laboratory and the University of Manchester (United Kingdom) to showcase recent advances in vitrification science.
Their work included creating simulant glasses with the same chemical composition as would be found in eventual high-level nuclear waste. To illustrate how these high-level wastes might deteriorate upon disposal, the simulant glasses were irradiated to assess damage, such as microcracks and fractures, at sub-millimetre length scales. Understanding how these glasses degrade is crucial, as the resulting fractures could act as conduits for fluids to penetrate the material and leach radioactive nuclei out of the glass, posing potentially deleterious environmental risks.
To engage the public and raise awareness about nuclear waste disposal, Prof. O’Driscoll and collaborators designed a public exhibition called Heart of Glass. Hosted at the Florence Arts Centre (Egremont, UK) between March and June 2023, the exhibit showcased the ongoing research efforts and aimed to dispel fears surrounding nuclear waste disposal.
This endeavour was possible thanks to the collaboration of Prof. O’Driscoll’s PhD student, Tamas Zagyva (now at Imperial College London), Dr. Felix Kaufmann (Museum of Natural History, Berlin), Prof. Petra Tjitske Kalshoven (Social Anthropology, University of Manchester), Dr. Laura Leay (Consultant, formerly University of Manchester), and Dr. Mike Harrison (Fellow and Technology Leader for Nuclear Waste Vitrification at the National Nuclear Laboratory).
The exhibition attracted strong interest from the local community and beyond. The Florence Arts Centre is located close to Sellafield, a closed nuclear reactor in the northwest of England that was the site of a serious nuclear incident in 1957. The generational memory of the negative societal impacts of nuclear energy remains strong in the area. Since Sellafield’s closure in 2022, the plant’s primary activities have been waste processing and decommissioning.
Heart of Glass raised awareness about the body of scientific work that has and is being carried out on high-level waste vitrification, contributing to improving general public understanding and alleviating concerns. Now a professor at the University of Ottawa, Prof. O’Driscoll intends to be proactive in organizing outreach activities in his field of research and teaching: economic geology–specifically concerning critical metal recovery and informing the public about associated environmental issues.
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