Abstract
The solubility of actinides and actinide surrogates in a nuclear borosilicate glass was studied with cerium, hafnium, neodymium, thorium and plutonium. Cerium is a possible surrogate for tetravalent and trivalent actinides such as plutonium, hafnium for tetravalent actinide such as thorium, and neodymium for trivalent actinides such as curium or americium. X-ray absorption spectroscopy was used to obtain data on the local environment of the dissolved elements in the glass network. For glasses melted at 1200 °C, the solubility limits of the elements studied were as follows Nd > Ce > Th > Pu > Hf. A correlation has been established between the cation bonding covalence, the oxygen polyhedron and the solubility limit of the elements: the greater the solubility, the larger the oxygen bonds.
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