Cesium silicate glasses

Critical temperatures often follow a simple trend for systems of related compositions. The critical temperature of alkali silicate melts, for example, decreases in the order of increasing radius of the alkali ion present, such that lithium and sodium silicate melts clearly exhibit metastable immiscibility, while the existence of immiscibility in potassium silicate glasses has not been conclusively established. There is no evidence for the existence of phase separation in the rubidium or cesium silicate systems. 

From power reactors with no reprocessing, the high-level waste consists of assemblies of zirconium-clad spent fuel rods to be packaged in stainless steel canisters. If the spent fuel is reprocessed, then the high-level waste will be converted to a silicate glass form similar to that from defense operations. The uranium and plutonium content in the waste, and also possibly the strontium-90 and cesium-137, would be reduced by 90 to 99 percent. The nuclides are useful, and their removal reduces the waste disposal problem several ways it reduces the toxicity and heat load of the waste and also reduces the incentive for future... 

VIOLET Potassium compounds other than silicates, phosphates and borates rubidium and cesium are similar. Color is masked by lithium and/or sodium, appears purple-red through cobalt glass and bluish-green glass. 

In this procedure the soil sample (spiked with isotopic marker compounds) is processed in a two-part enrichment procedure (Fig. 5.3). In part I, a mixture of the sample and sodium sulphate is subject to solvent extraction, and the extract is, in the same process, passed through a series of silica-based adsorbents and then through the carbon/glass fibre adsorbent. The extract passes through the adsorbents in the following order potassium silicate, silica gel, cesium or potassium silicate, silica gel and finally an activated-carbon... 

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