Geological Disposal Waste Package Evolution Status Report December 2016
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NDA Report no. DSSC/451/01 Geological Disposal Waste Package Evolution Status Report December 2016 NDA Report no. DSSC/451/01 Geological Disposal Waste Package Evolution Status Report December 2016 DSSC/451/01 Conditions of Publication This report is made available under the Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) Transparency Policy. In line with this policy, RWM is seeking to make information on its activities readily available, and to enable interested parties to have access to and influence on its future programmes. The report may be freely used for non-commercial purposes. RWM is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), accordingly all commercial uses, including copying and re publication, require permission from the NDA. All copyright, database rights and other intellectual property rights reside with the NDA. Applications for permission to use the report commercially should be made to the NDA Information Manager. Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information contained in this publication, the NDA cannot assume any responsibility for consequences that may arise from its use by other parties. © Nuclear Decommissioning Authority 2016 – All rights reserved. ISBN 978-1-84029-564-1 Other Publications If you would like to see other reports available from RWM, a complete listing can be viewed at our website https://rwm.nda.gov.uk, or please write to us at the address below. Feedback Readers are invited to provide feedback on this report and on the means of improving the range of reports published. Feedback should be addressed to: RWM Feedback Radioactive Waste Management Limited Building 587 Curie Avenue Harwell Campus Didcot OX11 0RH UK email [email protected] ii DSSC/451/01 Abstract The Waste Package Evolution status report is part of a suite of eight research status reports. The purpose of the research status reports is to describe the science and technology underpinning geological disposal of UK higher activity wastes by providing a structured review and summary of relevant published scientific literature and discussing its relevance in the UK context. The reports have been written for an audience with a scientific or technical background and with some knowledge of the context of geological disposal. The current suite of research status reports (issue 2) updates and replaces the suite produced in 2010 (issue 1). The objective of the Waste Package Evolution status report is to summarise the scientific evidence relating to evolution processes of waste packages (wasteforms and waste containers) during periods of storage and after disposal in the GDF. The key message emerging from the analysis presented in this status report is that durable waste packages, able to withstand their storage and disposal environments for very long periods of time, have been produced or can be produced in the future for the wastes considered in the disposal inventory. iii DSSC/451/01 iv DSSC/451/01 Executive Summary The Waste Package Evolution status report is part of a suite of research status reports describing the science and technology underpinning geological disposal of UK higher activity wastes. The report describes evolution processes of waste packages during periods of interim storage before emplacement in a geological disposal facility (GDF), during the operational period of a GDF, and after its closure. It considers all waste and potential waste currently considered in the disposal inventory, including intermediate level waste (ILW), some low level waste (LLW), high level waste (HLW), a variety of spent fuels, uranium (particularly depleted, natural and low enriched uranium, DNLEU), and plutonium (either in the form of spent fuel or immobilised plutonium residues). The report also considers a variety of packaging solutions currently adopted or envisaged for the disposal of radioactive wastes, including a variety of container types for ILW/LLW, HLW and spent fuel which may be also employed for the disposal of DNLEU and plutonium. For HLW and spent fuel, waste containers have typically been manufactured with the aim of withstanding long time periods after closure of the GDF. A variety of container designs have been developed in many international programmes. Designs based on copper or carbon steel are typically considered as the most prominent candidates in a variety of disposal scenarios. Studies carried out in the UK programme indicate that our variety of container types is likely to provide high durability in the range of geochemical conditions applicable to the UK, giving flexibility to the disposal programme. In particular, the durability of designs based on copper and carbon steel is likely to depend only to a limited extent on the geochemical conditions at a disposal site; durability of the order of tens or hundreds of thousands of years can be achieved with these materials. The studies also indicate that, provided the environmental conditions are suitably controlled, many container designs will be able to withstand long periods of interim storage or disposal in un-backfilled disposal tunnels. This provides flexibility to upstream and downstream waste management options. For ILW/LLW, waste containers have been manufactured with the aim of withstanding long periods of interim storage and operations in a GDF. The container designs most commonly employed in the UK (thin-walled, stainless steel) are expected to provide excellent durability in atmospheric conditions, provided that specific situations are avoided (particularly the deposition of marine aerosols). Other designs (thick-walled, cast iron or concrete) are also expected to provide good durability, provided that the environmental conditions are suitably controlled (particularly the relative humidity). In a cement backfilled GDF, the durability of ILW/LLW containers will depend on the container design and the geochemical conditions at the disposal site. In the case of stainless steel containers, either a relatively short (few years or decades) or long durability (greater than a thousand years) is expected, depending on the groundwater chemistry and rate of resaturation. A durability of greater than a thousand years is expected in the case of thick-walled cast iron and concrete containers, although further research is required to underpin durability estimates, particularly for concrete containers. In the case of ILW/LLW containers however, durability estimates are affected by substantial uncertainties. Key uncertainties include the state of containers at the time of disposal (after interim storage and GDF operational phase), the fact the current designs are not hermetically sealed, and the possibility heterogeneities in the backfill (for example, low pH niches) leading to specific corrosion mechanisms. Once waste containers have become perforated, following exposure to groundwater, waste packages will start releasing radionuclides to the EBS. The rate at which radionuclide- release processes will occur depends on the wasteform in question. For the majority of UK HLW (Magnox and Blend glass), radionuclide release is expected to be driven by long-term dissolution processes of the glass, and will occur over a timescale of tens or hundreds of thousands of years, somewhat faster than for HLW formulations v DSSC/451/01 which do not contain magnesium. Faster dissolution processes, however, are expected to lead to a faster release of radionuclides initially (about 1% of the inventory being released over many decades). For some HLW streams (such as wastes arising from post- operational clean, radionuclide segregation processes may lead to a higher initial release of specific radionuclides, but this has not yet been evaluated and will depend on future product formulation development. In the case of oxide spent fuels (existing AGR and PWR fuel), radionuclide release rates are expected to be driven by the long-term dissolution of the spent fuel matrix, and will occur on a timescale in excess of a hundred thousand years. An initial release of specific radionuclides, however, is expected to occur, leading to the rapid release of a fraction of the radionuclides inventory (0.1-10% of specific radionuclides). In the case of metallic fuel (some legacy fuel), should it be disposed of to the GDF, radionuclide releases are expected to be much faster, leading to dissolution of the whole inventory over periods of tens or hundreds of years after exposure to the groundwater. Differently from HLW and (most) spent fuels, some of the wastes and encapsulation materials employed for the immobilisation of ILW/LLW possess sufficient chemical reactivity to require consideration during interim storage and the operational period of the GDF. Waste streams requiring particular consideration include those containing ‘reactive’ metals (Magnox, aluminium and uranium), organic wastes (such as plutonium- contaminated materials or some ion-exchange resins) and ‘mobile wastes’ (such as sludges and flocculants). These materials may require a suitable pre-treatment and selection/formulation of encapsulant (if any) to mitigate the potential for chemical alteration processes which might result in dimensional changes or other detrimental effects. Noteworthy developments in the upstream treatment of ILW/LLW (but also plutonium) include thermal-treatment processes able to reduce the waste volume and chemical reactivity and lead to the development of an inert and durable wasteform. For DNLEU, which will arise in the form of uranium oxide powders,