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Inventories of Iodine-129 and Cesium-137 in the Gaps and Grain Boundaries of LWR Spent Fuels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

W. J. Gray
W. J. Gray*
Affiliation:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352, walt.gray@pnl.gov
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Abstract

Performance assessment calculations that support geologic disposal of spent nuclear fuel in a potential repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, are based in part on the assumption that 2% of the total inventories of 135Cs, 129I, and 99Tc are located in the gap and grain-boundary regions where they could dissolve rapidly if the spent fuel were to be contacted by groundwater. Actual measured values reported here for a few light-water reactor (LWR) spent fuels show that the combined gap and grain-boundary inventories of 129I approximately equaled the fission-gas release fractions. For 137Cs, the combined gap and grain-boundary inventories were approximately one third of the fission-gas release fractions. These measured values can be used to replace the 2% estimate and thus reduce the uncertainties in the calculations.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 556: Symposium QQ – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXII , 1999 , 487
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

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References

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