Synroc is an innovative solution to dealing with the problem of the long term storage of nuclear wastes that contain radioactive isotopes with long half-lives.
Synroc was invented in Australia in 1978 by Professor Ted Ringwood of the Australian National University. Extensive testing around the world has shown Synroc to have the high durability and low leaching characteristics required for long term disposal of high-level radioactive wastes.
Unlike borosilicate glass, which is amorphous, Synroc is a ceramic that incorporates the radioactive waste into the crystal structure of its individual grains. Although not yet in commercial use, in April of 2005, the Synroc process was chosen for a multi-million dollar demonstration contract to eliminate five tonnes of plutonium-contaminated waste at British Nuclear Fuel's Sellafield plant, on the northwest coast of England.
Written by Erika Dicker
Assistant Curator, 2007.
At the Australian government's request, a Synroc study group was set up in 1989 by four Australian companies, BHP, Rio Tinto, Energy Resources Australia, and Western Mining Corporation, in association with ANSTO (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) and Australian National University to consider commercialisation of the product. The commercial acceptance of the Synroc process was complicated by the fact that most of the worlds existing spent fuel processing plants were committed to the use of borosilicate glass for immobilisation.
Synroc is an advanced ceramic composed of minerals chosen for their stability and ability to immobilise high-level nuclear waste. The waste is added to mixed powdered metal oxides from which the ceramic is formed by heat and high compression. The Synroc is then placed in steel canisters to make individual containers of waste.
Radioactive waste atoms displace some host atoms, and so are chemically bound into a mineral matrix similar to natural rock. Synroc mimics some minerals natural ability to trap radioactive materials, like uranium, inside their structure until the radioactive levels have decayed away.
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