Synthesis and Properties of Metallic Technetium and Technetium-Zirconium Alloys as Transmutation Target and Radioactive waste storage form in the UREX+1 Process

In the application of UREX+1 process, technetium will be separated together with uranium and iodine within the first process step. After the separation of uranium, technetium and iodine must be immobilized by their incorporation in a suitable waste storage-form. Based on recent activities within the AFCI community, a potential candidate as waste storage form to immobilize technetium is to alloy the metal with excess zirconium. Alloys in the binary Tc-Zr system may act as potential transmutation targets in order to transmute Tc-99 into Ru-100. We are presenting first results in the synthesis of metallic technetium, and the synthesis of equilibrium phases in the binary Tc-Zr system at 1400 °C after arc-melting and isothermal annealing under inert conditions. Samples were analyzed using X-ray powder diffraction, Rietveld analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and electron probe micro-analysis, which allow us to construct the binary Tc-Zr phase diagram for the isothermal section at 1400 °C.