In a nuclear power plant, the activated corrosion products are deposited on the reactor coolant system. The activated corrosion products must be removed to reduce the radiation exposure to workers before maintaining or decommissioning of the nuclear power plant. In order to remove the remove the activated duplex oxide layer generated on the reactor coolant system in the pressurized water reactor (PWR), the Cyclic SP (Sulfuric acid/Permanganate)-HyBRID (Hydrazine Based Reductive metal Ion Decontamination) process developed by KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) can be used. After applying the Cyclic SP-HyBRID process, a sulfate-rich waste powder containing the radionuclide is generated, and the radioactive powder has to be stabilized for final disposal. In the previous study, it was confirmed that the low-temperature sintering method can be applied to immobilize the sulfate-rich waste powder. Thus, immobilization of the Cyclic SP-HyBRID process waste powder was carried out by the low-temperature sintering method using a low melting point glass, and the physicochemical and radiological characteristics of a waste form were evaluated in this study. As a result, the compressive strength of the waste form increased with increasing sintering temperature and sintering time. It is considered that the result was caused by the difference in the band gap between the bismuth borate and zinc borate, which are the products during the sintering process. It was verified that the physical stability was maintained after the 107 Gy of irradiation test. In addition, it was confirmed that the radioactive metal hydroxides contained in the waste powder converted to metal oxide forms, which have the lower solubility, at the sintering temperature. Finally, the waste form was evaluated as a low-level radioactive waste from the concentration of radionuclides contained in the waste form.

Sulfate-rich waste powder containing a radioactive nuclide is generated from chemical decontamination process and radioactive liquid waste treatment using ion exchange resin. The radioactive sulfate-rich waste powder should be stabilized for final disposal. The techniques for immobilization of the radioactive sulfate-rich waste powder such as hydraulic cement, geopolymer, and iron phosphate glass have been applied, however, there are limitation in these techniques. Firstly, the hydraulic cement cannot applied to the wastes containing high concentration of sulfate because the expansion, cracks, and disintegration can be happened in the waste form. Geopolymer has a low density although they can be used as a good binder. The iron phosphate glass can be utilized, however, a considerable amount of SO2 gas is emitted due to the high sintering temperature. In this study, immobilization of radioactive sulfate-rich waste powder was carried out to resolve above problems by applying low temperature sintering method using a low-melting glass. As a result, it was confirmed that the waste form has a high bulk density. The compressive strength of the waste form was over 40 MPa, which is higher than the acceptance criteria (≥ 3.44 MPa). From ANS 16.1 test, it was verified that the waste form met the acceptance criteria of the leachability index (≥ 6). It was also confirmed that the waste form was chemically durable through product consistency test (PCT). In addition, the chemical stabilities of waste forms were compared following the sintering condition and the composition of the waste forms. The difference of the chemical stability was explained by difference in the abundance of chemical form obtained from the sequential extraction test.

This paper focuses on the electrical properties and stability against DC accelerated aging stress of ZnO-V2O5-MnO2- Nb2O5-Bi2O3-Co3O4-Dy2O3 (ZVMNBCD) varistor ceramics sintered at 850 - 925 ℃. With the increase of sintering temperature, the average grain size increases from 4.4 to 11.8 mm, and the density of the sintered pellets decreases from 5.53 to 5.40 g/ cm3 due to the volatility of V2O5, which has a low melting point. The breakdown field abruptly decreases from 8016 to 1,715 V/cm with the increase of the sintering temperature. The maximum non-ohmic coefficient (59) is obtained when the sample is sintered at 875 ℃. The samples sintered at below 900 oC exhibit a relatively low leakage current, less than 60 mA/cm2. The apparent dielectric constant increases due to the increase of the average grain size with the increase of the sintering temperature. The change tendency of dissipation factor at 1 kHz according to the sintering temperature coincides with the tendency of the leakage current. In terms of stability, the samples sintered at 900 ℃ exhibit both high non-ohmic coefficient (45) and excellent stability, 0.8% in ΔEB/EB and -0.7% in Δα/α after application of DC accelerated aging stress (0.85 EB/85 oC/24 h).

The shrinkage variation of Low Temperature Cofired Ceramics(LTCC) limits the size of the substrates that impose limitations on embedded passive components. This paper focuses on the method of minimizing or controlling planar shrinkage and reducing distortion during firing. The laminated sheets of alumina and glass were sintered at varying temperature, and depending on the amount of the glass ceramics. When the sintered of multi-layer structure with , the glass infiltrated entirely into layer at the temperature of about or higher.