HAW glazing

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The HAW glazing is a manufacturing process for the integration of high level waste ( English High Active Waste shortly HAW) into a solid, leak-resistant glass matrix ( conditioning ) for the purpose of interim storage and eventual disposal .

The highly radioactive waste is initially in the raw state as liquids. They mostly consist of fission products and some actinides . Melting in borosilicate glass has established itself as the most suitable process over the last decades of the 20th century and is now technically mature. Different types of glazing were developed. They consist of the following sub-steps:

• Concentration of the HAW solution,
• Drying and conversion of nitrates into oxides by heating, and
• Chemical reaction of the oxides with glass-forming additives.

Depending on the process used, these sub-steps run in combination or one after the other.

At each of the existing or planned reprocessing plants , a corresponding glazing system is either already in operation, under construction or planned. The operation of reprocessing plants around the world has generated considerable amounts of such waste. By far the largest part comes from the military sector. For transport and (final) storage, the glass is  filled into so-called glass canisters.