Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-c9gpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T11:26:20.666Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Retrieval and Analysis of Simulated Defense HLW Package Experiments at the WIPP**

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Martin A. Molecke  and
N. Rob Sorensen
Martin A. Molecke
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA
N. Rob Sorensen
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA
Get access

Abstract

In situ waste package performance experiments involving simulated (non-radioactive) defense high-level waste (DHLW) containers have been in progress since late 1984 at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) facility. These experiments involve full-size, simulated DHLW containers of several metals and designs emplaced in the WIPP bedded rock salt. These test containers are surrounded by granular backfill (packing) materials, have in many cases been intentionally injected with brines, and are heavily instrumented. A majority of the test packages also contain nonradioactive DHLW borosilicate glass waste form, either within the container and/or outside of it. The primary purpose of these WIPP simulated DHLW experiments is to evaluate the in situ durability and performance of all waste package engineered barrier materials, and to perform package concept validation testing.

Twelve of the test DHLW containers, emplaced in WIPP test Room B, have been in heated operation since 1985 and had a maximum surface temperature of about 190°C. These containers were recently retrieved, after about 3 years of heated exposure, for detailed posttest laboratory analyses of: general corrosion and metallurgical degradation, waste form and backfill materials alterations, and other rock salt-brine-barrier materials near-field interactions with the “repository” geochemical environment. Test canisters and overpacks made of ASTM Grade-12 titanium showed essentially no visible degradation in either the base metal or welds; cast mild steel A216/WCA over-packs have suffered some uniform corrosion. Significant degradation of the removed instruments and associated test apparatus has been found: pieces of stainless steel (both 304L and 316) apparatus have undergone extensive stress-corrosion cracking failure and non-uniform attack; Inconel 600-sheathed instruments have undergone both extensive uniform and localized (pitting) attack. Granular backfill materials have been significantly compacted by creep closure to about a density of 2 kg/m. Laboratory analyses are still in progress. Further details on these materials results plus instrumentation data and other in situ WIPP waste package test observations are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 127: Symposium BERLIN – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XII , 1988 , 653
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

**

This work was performed by Sandia National Laboratories and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC04-76DP00789.

References

REFERENCES

1. Molecke, M. A., TEST PLAN: Waste Package Performance Technology Experiments for Simulated DHLW, Sandia National Laboratories (June 1984).Google Scholar
2. Molecke, M. A., WIPP Waste Package Testing on Simulated DHLW: Early Data, SAND85–0559C, in High-Level Nuclear Waste Disposal, ed. Burkholder, H. C., Batteile Press (1986).Google Scholar
3. Molecke, M. A., Ruppen, J. A., and Diegle, R. B., Materials for High-Level Waste Canister/Overpacks in Salt Formations, Nuclear Technology, Vol. 63, 476–506 (Dec. 1983).Google Scholar
4. Westinghouse Electric Corp., Waste Package Reference Conceptual Designs for a Repository in Salt, WSTD-TME-001, prepared for the Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation, Columbus, OH (August 1983).Google Scholar
5. Tyler, L. D., Matalucci, R. V., Molecke, M. A., Munson, D. M., Nowak, E. J., and Stormont, J. C., Summary Report for the WIPP Technology Development Program for Isolation Radioactive Waste, SAND88–0844, Sandia National Laboratories (April 1988).Google Scholar
6. Munson, D. E., TEST PLAN: Overtest for Simulated DHLW. Thermal-Structural Interactions, Sandia National Laboratories (June 1983).Google Scholar
7. Pfeifle, T. W., RE/SPEC, Inc., Mechanical Properties and Consolidation of Potential DHLW Backfill Materials: Crushed Salt and 70/30 Bentonite/ Sand, SAND85–7208, Sandia National Laboratories (July 1987).Google Scholar
8. Pfeifle, T. W., RE/SPEC, Inc., Backfill Material Specifications and Requirements for the WIPP Simulated DHLW and TRU Waste Technology Experiments, SAND85–7209, Sandia National Laboratories (July 1987).Google Scholar
9. Mcllmoyle, J. T., Matalucci, R. V., and Ogden, H. C., The Data Acquisition System for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant In Situ Tests, SAND86–1031, Sandia National Laboratories (August 1987).Google Scholar
10. Beraun, R. and Molecke, M. A., Numerical Thermal Modeling of the WIPP In Situ Room Al Simulated DHLW Experiments, SAND87–0467C, in Waste Management '87, Vol. 3. Proceedings of the Symposium on Waste Management at Tucson. AZ. ed. Post, R. G. and Wacks, M., University of Arizona (1987).Google Scholar
11. Brandshaug, T., RE/SPEC, Inc., A Thermomechanical Analysis of WIPP DHLW Experiments: Waste Container/Borehole Interactions, SAND85–7210, Sandia National Laboratories (July 1986).Google Scholar