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REVIEW article

Front. Nucl. Eng.
Sec. Radioactive Waste Management
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnuen.2024.1404739
This article is part of the Research Topic EURAD: State of the Art in Research and Development on Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal View all articles

WP15 ConCorD State-of-the-Art-Report (Container Corrosion Under Disposal Conditions)

Provisionally accepted
Andrés G. Muñoz Andrés G. Muñoz 1Abdesselam Abdelouas Abdesselam Abdelouas 2Ursula Alonso Ursula Alonso 3Ana María Fernández Ana María Fernández 3Rizlan Bernier-Latmani Rizlan Bernier-Latmani 4Andrea Cherkouk formerly Geissler Andrea Cherkouk formerly Geissler 5Roberto Gaggiano Roberto Gaggiano 6James Hesketh James Hesketh 7Nick Smart Nick Smart 7Cristiano Padovani Cristiano Padovani 7Kristel Mijnendonckx Kristel Mijnendonckx 8Vanessa Montoya Vanessa Montoya 8Andrés Idiart Andrés Idiart 9Arnau Pont Arnau Pont 9Olga Riba Olga Riba 9Nicolas Finck Nicolas Finck 10Ashutosh R. Singh Ashutosh R. Singh 10Fraser King Fraser King 11Nikitas Diomidis Nikitas Diomidis 12*
  • 1 GRS, Braunschweig, Germany
  • 2 UMR6457 Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et des Technologies Associées (SUBATECH), Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France
  • 3 Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 4 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland
  • 5 Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HZ), Dresden, Lower Saxony, Germany
  • 6 Organisme National des Déchets Radioactifs et des Matières Fissiles Enrichies, Brussels, Belgium
  • 7 Jacobs (United Kingdom), London, England, United Kingdom
  • 8 Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN), Mol, Belgium
  • 9 Amphos 21 (Spain), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
  • 10 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
  • 11 Integrity corrosion consulting Ltd., Nanaimo, Canada
  • 12 National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste (NAGRA), Wettingen, Switzerland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    A sealed container for the geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel and vitrified high-level waste is the only component of the deep geological repository that provides complete containment of radionuclides. As such, attention is focused on its lifetime. The lifetime of the container is influenced by materials degradation processes during disposal and is typically of the order of several millennia and, for some container materials, up to one million years. Designing, manufacturing, and predicting the performance of containers over such long periods requires an in-depth understanding of their materials properties, fabrication processes, and degradation mechanisms. Scientific and technological progress can improve both the performance of containers as well as the robustness of lifetime predictions. For many national radioactive waste disposal programs, optimization of these aspects is of primary importance. In this paper, the state of the art of complex coupled degradation processes, as well as the optimization potential of novel container materials is presented. Furthermore, the existing tools allowing the prediction of long-term barrier integrity are discussed.

    Keywords: Nuclear waste containers, disposal canisters, corrosion, Radiation, Microbiologically influenced corrosion, Lifetime prediction

    Received: 21 Mar 2024; Accepted: 10 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Muñoz, Abdelouas, Alonso, Fernández, Bernier-Latmani, Cherkouk formerly Geissler, Gaggiano, Hesketh, Smart, Padovani, Mijnendonckx, Montoya, Idiart, Pont, Riba, Finck, Singh, King and Diomidis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Nikitas Diomidis, National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste (NAGRA), Wettingen, Switzerland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.