Materials chemistry ensuring safe, indefinite isolation of used nuclear fuel

材料化学确保用过的核燃料的安全、无限期隔离

• 批准号: 561193-2020
• 负责人: Noel, JamesJJ
• 金额: $ 39.74万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=747573
• 关键词: Materials; chemistry; ensuring; safe; indefinite

Canada's plan for long-term management of used nuclear fuel relies on natural and engineered barriers to ensure safe containment and isolation of radioactivity from people and the environment. The engineered barrier system, which will employ durable used fuel containers (UFCs) surrounded by bentonite clay buffer boxes will be emplaced in a deep geological repository (DGR) within the vicinity of a willing and informed host community. The copper-coated UFCs hold used nuclear fuel bundles; therefore, their longevity is an important factor in the safe performance of the engineered barrier system. As the repository environment evolves over time, corrosion is one of the degradation modes that could impact the performance of the UFCs, so a key challenge is to confidently predict the corrosion behaviour of the UFCs, and the used nuclear fuel itself, over a period of at least a million years. This Alliance project will provide a detailed understanding of the degradation processes of UFCs and nuclear fuel, using experimental and modeling tools, along with natural evidence from Mother Earth, to build confidence in long-term predictions. The key objective of this project is to investigate the corrosion of copper and used nuclear fuel under anticipated DGR conditions, to improve the underlying scientific understanding and answer the remaining questions raised by scientists, the public, and the nuclear regulators. This 5-year project, funded by NSERC and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) will be performed in partnership with three other companies responsible for nuclear fuel waste management in their home countries: SKB (Sweden), Nagra (Switzerland), and NUMO (Japan). Ultimately information generated through this Alliance project will be integrated into each company's plans for developing UFCs for a deep geologic repository and ensuring its safety and longevity.

加拿大对二手核燃料的长期管理计划依赖于自然和工程障碍，以确保安全遏制和从人和环境中隔离放射性。该工程屏障系统将采用耐用的二手燃料容器（UFC），周围环绕着膨润土粘土缓冲盒，将在一个自愿且知情的主机社区附近的深层地质储存库（DGR）中安置。镀铜的UFC持有使用的核燃料束；因此，它们的寿命是工程屏障系统安全性能的重要因素。随着存储库环境的发展，腐蚀是可能影响UFC性能的降解模式之一，因此，一个关键的挑战是自信地预测UFC的腐蚀行为以及使用的核燃料本身至少一百万年。 该联盟项目将使用实验和建模工具以及地球母亲的自然证据来详细了解UFC和核燃料的退化过程，以建立对长期预测的信心。该项目的主要目的是研究在预期的DGR条件下铜和核燃料的腐蚀，以改善科学家，公众和核监管机构提出的剩余问题。 由NSERC和核废料管理组织（NWMO）资助的这项为期5年的项目将与其他三家负责其本国核燃料废物管理的公司合作：SKB（瑞典），Nagra（瑞士）和Numo（日本）。最终，通过该联盟项目生成的信息将集成到每个公司为深层地质存储库开发UFC的计划中，并确保其安全性和寿命。