Experiments for evaluation of corrosion to develop storage criteria for interim dry storage of aluminum-alloy clad spent nuclear fuel

Conference · Tue Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:10193892

Peacock, H B; Sindelar, R L; Lam, P S; Murphy, T H

The technical bases for specification of limits to environmental exposure conditions to avoid excessive degradation are being developed for storage criteria for dry storage of highly-enriched, aluminum-clad spent nuclear fuels owned by the US Department of Energy. Corrosion of the aluminum cladding is a limiting degradation mechanism (occurs at lowest temperature) for aluminum exposed to an environment containing water vapor. Attendant radiation fields of the fuels can lead to production of nitric acid in the presence of air and water vapor and would exacerbate the corrosion of aluminum by lowering the pH of the water solution. Laboratory-scale specimens are being exposed to various conditions inside an autoclave facility to measure the corrosion of the fuel matrix and cladding materials through weight change measurements and metallurgical analysis. In addition, electrochemical corrosion tests are being performed to supplement the autoclave testing by measuring differences in the general corrosion and pitting corrosion behavior of the aluminum cladding alloys and the aluminum-uranium fuel materials in water solutions.

• Research Organization: Westinghouse Savannah River Co., Aiken, SC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC09-89SR18035
• OSTI ID: 10193892
• Report Number(s): WSRC-MS--94-0564; CONF-941207--12; ON: DE95002691
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052002
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360105
ALUMINIUM
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
CORROSION AND EROSION
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
PACKAGING
PITTING CORROSION
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT
SPENT FUELS
WASTE DISPOSAL AND STORAGE