Increasing Safety and Reducing Environmental Damage Risk from Aging High-Level Radioactive Waste Tanks

Technical Report · Wed Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/893266· OSTI ID:893266

Steffler, Eric D; McClintock, Frank A; Lloyd, W Randolph; Rashid, Mark M; Williamson, Richard L

Cracks of various shapes and sizes exist in large high-level waste (HLW) tanks at several DOE sites. There is justifiable concern that these cracks could grow to become unstable causing a substantial release of liquid contaminants to the environment. Accurate prediction of crack growth behavior in the tanks, especially during accident scenarios, is not possible with existing analysis methodologies. This research project responds to this problem by developing an improved ability to predict crack growth in material structure combinations that are ductile (Fig. 1). This new model not only addresses the problem for these tanks, but also has applicability to any crack in any ductile structure.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), Idaho Falls, ID; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA; University of California, Davis, CA
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE - Office of Science (SC)
• OSTI ID: 893266
• Report Number(s): EMSP-81898-2005
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACCIDENTS
AGING
CRACK PROPAGATION
FORECASTING
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SAFETY
TANKS
WASTES