Technologies glass production

J. Levins, in Glass Production Technology International, Sterling PubHcations Limited, London, 1992, pp. 47—50. 

A limitation of this technology is that at least some additives are normally required before processing to control the properties of the final waste form. Since only a small part (approximately 30%, according to the vendor) of the waste is incorporated into the final glass product, most of the material is converted to gases and particulate that must be processed by the off-gas system. 

Gutmann, R. 1996. Thermal technologies to convert solid waste residuals into technical glass products. Glastechnische Berichte, 69, 285-299. 

Vitrification technology for production of waste forms is the most developed and is only presently utilized at an industrial scale. Currently actual HLW from SNF reprocessing is being vitrified with production of borosilicate glass in France and UK using an inductively-heated (200-300 kHz) metallic (Inconel-690) melter [44,45]. Replacement of the induction-heated metallic melter by a cold-crucible melter is being considered [46]. In the USA and Russia Joule-heated ceramic melters are implemented for HLW vitrification in borosilicate or phosphate [24,47-50] glasses. By the end of 2000 the total amount of vitrified radioactive waste in the world was about 10 000 MT [43]. 

Known as ITO in the electronics industry, indium-tin oxide has proven to be the cornerstone of liquid crystal display (LCD) technology. During production, a thin layer of indium-tin oxide (a mixture of In203 and SnOi) is used to coat the glass contained within an LCD flat-screen panel. This allows the glass to be both conductive and transparent. About half of the world s indium is used to make LCDs. 

The experience gained during six years of active operation of the PAMELA vitrification plant has proven the feasibility of the process and the industrial reliability, based upon state-of-the-art technology. Excellent results with the quality of the final glass products, the occupational doses, and the atmospheric releases have been recorded. Additional development work, carried out at FzK, FRG allows us to introduce further improvements of the ceramic melter design into the process. 

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