A comparison between local sand and SiO2 with different compositions of CeO2 with respect to the structural
properties of glasses after successive irradiation was carried out by using ultrasonic techniques and
FTIR spectroscopy. The ultrasonic velocities were measured by the pulse echo technique, with a frequency
of 4 MHz and at room temperature. From these obtained velocities and densities, various elastic
moduli, micro-hardness and Poisson’s ratio were calculated. The results indicate that local sand is more
affected by gamma irradiation than SiO2. These results are due to a higher iron impurity in local sand
leading to the occurrence more non-bridging oxygen (NBO).