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Depleted Uranium Oxides and Silicates as Spent Nuclear Fuel Waste Package Fill Materials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 September 2012

C. W. Forsberg
C. W. Forsberg*
Affiliation:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, forsbergcw@ornl.gov
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Abstract

A new repository waste package (WP) concept for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is being investigated. The WP uses depleted uranium (DU) to improve performance and reduce the uncertainties of geological disposal of SNF. The WP would be loaded with SNF. Void spaces would then be filled with DU (∼0.2 wt % 235U) dioxide (UO2) or DU silicate-glass beads.

Fission products and actinides can not escape the SNF UO2 crystals until the UO2 dissolves or is transformed into other chemical species. After WP failure, the DU fill material slows dissolution by three mechanisms: (1) saturation of WP groundwater with DU and suppression of SNF dissolution, (2) maintenance of chemically reducing conditions in the WP that minimize SNF solubility by sacrificial oxidation of DU from the +4 valence state, and (3) evolution of DU to lower-density hydrated uranium silicates. The fill expansion minimizes water flow in the degraded WP. The DU also isotopically exchanges with SNF uranium as the SNF degrades to reduce long-term nuclear-criticality concerns.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 465: Symposium II – Scienfific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XX , 1996 , 615
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1997

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