Nuclear waste package fabricated from concrete

Conference · Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:6240728

Pfeiffer, P A; Kennedy, J M

After the United States enacted the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1983, the Department of Energy must design, site, build and operate permanent geologic repositories for high-level nuclear waste. The Department of Energy has recently selected three sites, one being the Hanford Site in the state of Washington. At this particular site, the repository will be located in basalt at a depth of approximately 3000 feet deep. The main concern of this site, is contamination of the groundwater by release of radionuclides from the waste package. The waste package basically has three components: the containment barrier (metal or concrete container, in this study concrete will be considered), the waste form, and other materials (such as packing material, emplacement hole liners, etc.). The containment barriers are the primary waste container structural materials and are intended to provide containment of the nuclear waste up to a thousand years after emplacement. After the containment barriers are breached by groundwater, the packing material (expanding sodium bentonite clay) is expected to provide the primary control of release of radionuclide into the immediate repository environment. The loading conditions on the concrete container (from emplacement to approximately 1000 years), will be twofold; (1) internal heat of the high-level waste which could be up to 400/sup 0/C; (2) external hydrostatic pressure up to 1300 psi after the seepage of groundwater has occurred in the emplacement tunnel. A suggested container is a hollow plain concrete cylinder with both ends capped. 7 refs.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 6240728
• Report Number(s): CONF-870812-20; ON: DE87011469
• Resource Relation: Conference: 9. SMIRT: international conference on structural mechanics in reactor technology, Lausanne, Switzerland, 17 Aug 1987; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CONTAINERS
SERVICE LIFE
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
SITE SELECTION
BENTONITE
CASKS
CONCRETES
CREEP
GROUND WATER
HANFORD RESERVATION
NUCLEAR WASTE POLICY ACTS
PACKAGING
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
STRAINS
STRESSES
WATER POLLUTION
BUILDING MATERIALS
CLAYS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
LAWS
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WATER
052002* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Disposal & Storage
360600 - Other Materials