Assessment of irradiation effects in radwaste containing organic ion-exchange media

Technical Report · Tue May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1984

OSTI ID:6480518

Swyler, K J; Dodge, C J; Dayal, R

Recently, regulatory consideration has been devoted to the effects of self-irradiation on radwaste containing organic ion exchange media. This consideration was prompted by decontamination operations at TMI-II, and by the development of technical positions in support of NRC regulation 10 CFR 60. This report addresses the effects of high radiation dose on the storage and disposal of radwaste ion-exchange media, and the validity of laboratory test procedures for predicting field performance. Our work shows that accelerated testing of ion-exchange media using high-dose-rate external gamma irradiation appears to be a valid procedure for assessing certain aspects of field behavior - i.e. radiolytic scission of the resin functional group, radiolytic gas generation of free liquids and resin agglomeration, provided both the test data and the field conditions refer to storage in a closed environment. Certain resin decomposition processes appear to depend largely on resin moisture content, and may not be particularly sensitive to resin loading. One practical consequence of radiolytic acidity is to promote the corrosion of mild steel in irradiated resin. However, the corrosion process is very complex. Case-specific, long-term (i.e. low radiation dose) evaluations might be necessary if rigorous guidelines to protect radwaste containers against corrosion are required. 24 references, 29 figures, 20 tables.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 6480518
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CR-3812; BNL-NUREG-51774; ON: TI84016420
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ION EXCHANGE MATERIALS
RADIOLYSIS
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SELF-IRRADIATION
RESINS
STEELS
CORROSION
CORROSION PRODUCTS
ELECTRON BEAMS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
G VALUE
GAMMA RADIATION
HYDROGEN
ORGANIC ION EXCHANGERS
PH VALUE
ALLOYS
BEAMS
CHEMICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHEMISTRY
DATA
DECOMPOSITION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
INFORMATION
IONIZING RADIATIONS
IRON ALLOYS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
IRRADIATION
LEPTON BEAMS
MATERIALS
NONMETALS
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC POLYMERS
PARTICLE BEAMS
PETROCHEMICALS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
POLYMERS
RADIATION CHEMISTRY
RADIATION EFFECTS
RADIATIONS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
WASTES
052002* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Disposal & Storage
360105 - Metals & Alloys- Corrosion & Erosion