Actinides in Silicate Glasses and Melts and on Mineral Surfaces: Information on Local Co-ordination Environments from Xafs Spectroscopy and Bond Valence Theory

The impact of actinides on the environment is mitigated by their interaction with particle surfaces and by incorporation into suitable waste forms. In both cases, a fundamental knowledge of the local co-ordination environment of actinide ions is essential for understanding their stability in various near-surface environments under a range of conditions. When actinide ions are sorbed on mineral surfaces, the extent to which the ions are immobilised depends on the type of surface complex or solid precipitate that forms. When incorporated into a glass or crystalline waste form, the stability of the actinide will depend in part on its redox state and local co-ordination environment. In both cases, XAFS spectroscopy can provide unique information on the number and types of first and, in certain cases, more distant neighbours, and their geometric arrangement (including inter-atomic distances and a measure of their disorder). When this structural information from XAFS spectroscopy is combined with Pauling bond valence theory and modern bond valences corrected for bond length variations, it is also possible to develop plausible models for their medium-range co-ordination environments (out to ≈ 4 Å radial distance around the actinide) for both sorbed actinide ions and those present in a silicate glass or melt. We discuss results from several XAFS studies of the naturally occurring actinides uranium and thorium in sorption samples, silicate glasses and silicate melts at high temperature.