7 July to
6 October 2023
Heart of Glass Exhibition and Programme
24 March - 30 June 2023 Florence Arts Centre, Egremont
Science meets creativity in a display of visually stunning images in this multimedia exhibition…the longer you look the more ambiguous they become!
The images have been produced as part of a research project by The University of Manchester and show highly magnified images of glass structures and of crystals that can grow in nuclear waste materials.
- Enjoy a series of conversational podcasts by Laura Leay and guest exploring science, society and art https://techspeaking.podbean.com/
- and watch our web site for forthcoming glass making workshops and other related activities
This exhibition explores the properties of glass, a material that can be human-made but which also occurs naturally.
Although we think of glass as a fragile material, we have examples of glass objects that have existed for many centuries, so there is also something durable about glass. Thanks to this property, glass is being explored by material scientists for its ability to contain and stabilise nuclear waste.
The exhibition displays images which were produced using high magnification techniques during experiments with nuclear waste glass making (or vitrification). At the heart of vitrified waste, crystals can form due to platinum-rich elements – called platinoids. These can cause micro-cracks in the glass, and scientists are trying to understand how platinoids may behave both during the production of nuclear waste glass and during the aging of the glass in a proposed underground disposal site. This is a major infrastructure project that is high on the UK government’s agenda and of interest to Cumbria.
Nuclear waste is a long-term concern which both natural and social scientists are researching, from different perspectives. We invite you to zoom in on platinoids and explore the creativity that is inherent to doing research. Then zoom out to consider the societal and environmental realities in which nuclear waste, and glass making, leave very long traces.
Podcasts delving deeper into the subject:
Join Laura Leay and guests on ‘Technically Speaking - a science and engineering discussion’ in four episodes to complement the exhibition:
9 March: The Science of Vitrification with Tracey Taylor from the UK National Nuclear Laboratory and geologist Brian O'Driscoll from the University of Ottowa, Canada.
16 march: Creativity in Art & Science with Tamas Zagyva from Imperial College London and artist Bridget Kennedy.
23 March: Societal Implications of Nuclear Glass with Petra Tjitske Kalshoven and Penny Harvey, both anthropologists and part of the BEAM network at The University of Manchester.
A fourth episode will capture reactions to the exhibition at a later date.
Read on to find out about the research into platinoids in nuclear waste glass with Tamas Zagyva, the researcher who worked on the exhibition:
Scientists use numerous methods to study nuclear waste glasses. This is a crucial step to ensure that the radioactive glass waste products will not cause a significant hazard to the environment when buried underground. The images in the exhibition at Florence Arts Centre reveal numerous tiny crystals that can precipitate in the nuclear waste glass, some of which are platinoids, or platinum group metals.
Platinoids (ruthenium, rhodium, palladium) form metallic particles in the nuclear fuel that go straight through the nuclear fuel reprocessing stage and end up in the vitrified high-level waste glass product. As they are unreactive, they’re not generally seen as an issue for the quality, stability and durability of the waste product, but they can cause operational issues.
Excessive quantities of metallic particles in the melter can have two problems; (1) viscosity increase / settling / blockages that stop the melt from being poured, or (2) in Joule-heated melters they can cause shorts between the two electrodes, reducing their efficiency and (worst case) such a reduction in temperature of the melt that it freezes. The platinoid-rich glasses shown in the exhibition were made specifically to look at settling blockages during the vitrification process.
Several types of images are included in the exhibition:
Micro-X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (μXRF) measurements reveal the distribution of Ru and Pd elements (elemental maps) in the thin sections.
Micro-computed tomography (μCT) is a 3D imaging technique utilising X-rays to see inside an object, slice by slice, without physically cutting the material. In the video shown in the exhibition, you can see a series of images with increasing depths. The material contains small air bubbles that formed during the glass making process.
During scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis, a focused electron beam scans over the sample surface. The electron-material interaction produces backscattered electrons (BSE) and characteristic X-rays, which can be used for imaging or chemical analysis.
o Backscattered electron images (black and white) provide atomic number contrast, so the brightest (white) regions contain elements with high atomic numbers, whereas dark regions contain low atomic number elements. In these BSE images, the glass phase is dark (as it contains mainly elements with low atomic numbers like Na, Mg, Al, and Si). The precipitated crystals contain elements with high atomic numbers (e.g., Ru, Pd), so they appear bright.
o Scanning electron microscopes are usually equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS). EDS can be used to create elemental distribution maps about a selected area of the sample. These are the coloured images. In the exhibition, the EDS elemental maps reveal
§ Cr, Fe, Al elements – spinel crystal (which is also common in volcanic rocks),
§ Na and Si element – glass,
§ Ru and Pd elements – ruthenium and palladium oxide crystals.
o BSE images help to study the microstructure of the material (e.g., size and distribution of crystals, cracking…), whereas EDS maps help to identify the precipitated crystals as they provide information about the chemical composition.
Find out about our exhibition partners, The Beam
Heart of Glass was co-produced by The Beam, The University of Manchester’s research group https://www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk/thebeam/
The Beam produces qualitative social research based on long-term, comparative ethnographic study of nuclear waste management and decommissioning, and energy practices and policies.
They focus on the questions, conversations, and controversies provoked by nuclear science, industry, and publics to shape and contribute to debates on the more general issues of energy infrastructures, climate change, forecasting, ethics, robotics, labour relations, environmental politics, corporate and governmental rhetoric, public engagement, and changing organisational and management structures.
The Beam draws on experience and views from many different perspectives and positions to provoke discussion and share insight, and to generate new research outcomes.
