Corrosion of breached aluminide fuel under potential repository conditions.

Conference · Mon Nov 06 04:00:00 EST 2000

OSTI ID:768606

Kaminski, M D; Goldberg, M M

Permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel is proposed in a repository located in the volcanic tuff beds near Yucca Mountain, Nevada, and it is the responsibility of the National Spent Nuclear Fuel Program (NSNFP) to provide the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) with information related to the release of fission products from the DOE-owned SNF resulting from SNF corrosion. Hydrologically unsaturated spent fuel tests (''drip'' tests) are designed to simulate and monitor the release of radionuclides from the spent fuel under potential exposure conditions in the repository. Of the priority fuels being tested under the NSNFP, the aluminum-based fuels are included because of their high relative volume and uranium enrichment. The Al fuel structure is composed of fissile and aluminum powders pressed and annealed between Al plates to form thin metallic plates. The most widely used fissile powder was the intermetallic compound aluminide UAl{sub x} (where x=2,3,4). As part of this testing program, preliminary corrosion tests using unirradiated UAl{sub x} were initiated to address experimental design, sampling, and analysis issues prior to conducting tests with spent fuels. However, during this program the decision was made by U.S. DOE to convert the aluminum-based fuels to safer enrichment levels by using the melt-dilute process at Savannah River. Nonetheless, the product ingot of the melt-dilute process resembles low enriched UAl{sub x} fuel and corrosion of the fuel is expected to be similar. This paper summarizes the preliminary testing results for the first year of the program and compares them to other corrosion testing results on aluminum fuels as well as other DOE fuel types.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 768606
• Report Number(s): ANL/CMT/CP-103296
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ALUMINIUM ALLOYS
CORROSION
INTERMETALLIC COMPOUNDS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
SPENT FUELS
URANIUM ALLOYS
WASTE FORMS
YUCCA MOUNTAIN