Spent fuel performance in geologic repository environments
The performance assessment of the waste package is a current area of study in the United States program to develop a geologic repository for nuclear waste isolation. The waste package is presently envisioned as the waste form and its surrounding containers and possibly a packing material composed of crushed host rock or mixtures of that rock with clays. This waste package is tied to performance criteria set forth in recent legislation. It is the goal of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program to obtain the necessary information on the waste package, in several geologic environments, to show that the waste package provides reasonable assurance of meeting established performance criteria. This paper discusses the United States program directed toward managing high-level radioactive waste, with emphasis on the current effort to define the behavior of irradiated spent fuel in repository groundwaters. Current studies are directed toward understanding the rate and nature (such as valence state, colloid form if any, solid phase controlling solubility) of radionuclide release from the spent fuel. Due to the strong interactive effect of radiation, thermal fields, and waste package components on this release, current spent fuel studies are being conducted primarily in the presence of waste package components over a wide range of potential environments.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest Labs., Richland, WA (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC06-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 6458425
- Report Number(s):
- PNL-SA-13456; CONF-8510133-1; ON: DE86004860
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
BACKFILLING
ENERGY SOURCES
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FUELS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GROUND WATER
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
NUCLEAR FUELS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PACKAGING
RADIATION EFFECTS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
REACTOR MATERIALS
SALT DEPOSITS
SPENT FUELS
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WATER