Pressure building during the early stages of gas production in a radioactive waste repository

Corrosion of irradiated MOX fuel in presence of dissolved H2

“…In the case of groundwater intrusion, the anoxic water will corrode the container iron and large amounts of H 2 will be produced through the reaction [5]: 3FeðsÞ þ 4H 2 O ! Fe 3 O 4 ðsÞ þ 4H 2 ðgÞ:…”

Trapping of radiolytic hydrogen by amorphous cobalt oxysulfide

“…Release of hydrogen from irradiated organic matter is a potential source of serious safety problems in the nuclear industry, particularly in the installations used for waste management [1][2][3]. A possible solution to these hazards is to diminish the production of radiolytic hydrogen by use of radical traps [4,5], energy scavengers [6,7] or hydrogen absorbers.…”

Simulation of repository gas migration in a bentonite buffer

“…Bonin et al, 2000;Environment Agency, 2008). After the thermal phase, water vapour will be limited due to high water saturation, and microbial activities may reduce the net amount of gases due to metabolic activities (Ortiz et al, 2002).…”

“…At this point, heat generation from the waste will be reduced, so that water is not as readily converted to vapour and transported away from the canister. Several gas species may be generated -hydrogen (H 2 ), helium (He), water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) -although hydrogen from metallic corrosion is likely to be the dominant gas generated (Bonin et al, 2000;Norris, 2009). Generation and migration of these gases could affect the buffering capacity of the barrier by altering its physical and chemical properties.…”