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Effects of Gamma Radiolysis on Waste Package Components

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2011

Michele A. Lewis  and
Donald T. Reed
Michele A. Lewis
Affiliation:
Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439
Donald T. Reed
Affiliation:
Basalt Waste Isolation Project, Rockwell Hanford Operations, P. O. Box 800, Richland, WA 99352
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Abstract

Preliminary short-term experiments to study the effect of gamma radiation on the waste package materials interactions in the environment of a nuclear waste repository in basalt were completed. Experimental parameters were similar to those expected during the saturated post- closure period of the repository, i.e., a temperature of 200°C and a hydrostatic pressure of ≤70 bar. The test components included various combinations of synthetic groundwater (GR4), low carbon steel coupons, CH4, basalt, and basalt/bentonite mixtures (packing). The tests were run in low carbon steel pressure vessels.

It was found that gamma radiation at a dose rate of 104rad/hr for a duration of one and two months increased the H2 yield in all tests. Increases in the organic carbon yield, the sulfate ion concentration, and the corrosion rate of the coupon were observed in some of the tests. These latter results varied with the combination of waste package components included in the tests. Evidence for the quench effect was observed in tests which included basalt.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 84: Symposium L – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management X , 1986 , 623
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1987

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