Review of oxidation rates of DOE spent nuclear fuel : Part 1 : nuclear fuel.
The long-term performance of Department of Energy (DOE) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in a mined geologic disposal system depends highly on fuel oxidation and subsequent radionuclide release. The oxidation rates of nuclear fuels are reviewed in this two-volume report to provide a baseline for comparison with release rate data and technical rationale for predicting general corrosion behavior of DOE SNF. The oxidation rates of nuclear fuels in the DOE SNF inventory were organized according to metallic, Part 1, and non-metallic, Part 2, spent nuclear fuels. This Part 1 of the report reviews the oxidation behavior of three fuel types prototypic of metallic fuel in the DOE SNF inventory: uranium metal, uranium alloys and aluminum-based dispersion fuels. The oxidation rates of these fuels were evaluated in oxygen, water vapor, and water. The water data were limited to pure water corrosion as this represents baseline corrosion kinetics. Since the oxidation processes and kinetics discussed in this report are limited to pure water, they are not directly applicable to corrosion rates of SNF in water chemistry that is significantly different (such as may occur in the repository). Linear kinetics adequately described the oxidation rates of metallic fuels in long-term corrosion. Temperature dependent oxidation rates were determined by linear regression analysis of the literature data. As expected the reaction rates of metallic fuels dramatically increase with temperature. The uranium metal and metal alloys have stronger temperature dependence than the aluminum dispersion fuels. The uranium metal/water reaction exhibited the highest oxidation rate of the metallic fuel types and environments that were reviewed. Consequently, the corrosion properties of all DOE SNF may be conservatively modeled as uranium metal, which is representative of spent N-Reactor fuel. The reaction rate in anoxic, saturated water vapor was essentially the same as the water reaction rate. The long-term intrinsic reaction rates of irradiated and unirradiated fuel were determined to be similar. The apparent reaction rate of irradiated metallic fuel increases as a function of swelling due to the increased surface area.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 775264
- Report Number(s):
- ANL-00/24; TRN: US0101170
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 8 Dec 2000
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
SPENT FUELS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
ALUMINIUM ALLOYS
URANIUM
OXIDATION
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
URANIUM ALLOYS
WATER VAPOR
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
CORROSION