A ceramic waste immobilizing material for the encapsulation of high level
radioactive waste (HLW), e.g. resulting from the reprocessing of
irradiated nuclear fuel. The ceramic waste immobilising material enables
waste ions from at least fission products in irradiated nuclear fuel to
be dissolved in substantially solid solution form. The ceramic waste
immobilising medium has a matrix comprising phases of hollandite,
perovskite and zirconolite in which the waste ions are dissolved. The
invention also includes a method of immobilizing HLW from reprocessed
nuclear fuel assemblies comprising the steps of mixing a liquor
containing the HLW with a precursor material comprising oxides or oxide
precursors of at least titanium, calcium and barium to form a slurry,
drying the slurry, and calcining the dried slurry under a reducing
atmosphere to form a powder comprising 30 65 weight % waste.