Corrosion Performance of Engineered Barrier System in Deep Horizontal Drillholes

Joe H. Payer, Stefan Finsterle, John A. Apps and Richard A. Muller
Additional contact information
Joe H. Payer: Corrosion Engineering, University of Akron, Whitby Hall 211, Akron, OH 44325-3906, USA
Stefan Finsterle: Finsterle GeoConsulting, 315 Vassar Ave., Kensington, CA 94708, USA
John A. Apps: Geochemistry Consultant, 3389 Angelo Street, Lafayette, CA 94549, USA
Richard A. Muller: Deep Isolation Inc., 2120 University Avenue, Ste. 623, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: The disposal of spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste in deep horizontal drillholes is an innovative system. Canisters of highly corrosion-resistant nickel-chromium-molybdenum (Ni-Cr-Mo) alloys are specified for the disposal of this nuclear waste. The canisters are emplaced along a steel casing in a horizontal drillhole that is one to three kilometers deep into or below a low-permeability geologic formation. The drillhole is in fully saturated rock with anoxic and reducing pore waters. A time-interval analysis method was used to track the evolution of the environment and to analyze corrosion performance of a representative engineered barrier system (EBS) configuration. In this analysis, the canisters remained perforation-free for tens of thousands of years. The amounts of hydrogen and metal oxides formed as by-products of the metal corrosion process were determined. These by-products are of interest, because both hydrogen and metal oxides can affect the chemical composition of the environment and the transport and sorption behavior of radionuclides and other species. Beneficial attributes that contribute to the extraordinarily long life of the canisters were identified. Several inherent characteristics of the horizontal drillhole disposal system reduced the complexities and uncertainties of the analysis.

Keywords: nuclear waste; horizontal drillholes; corrosion; hydrogen; metal oxides; canisters; corrosion resistant alloy; steel; cesium and strontium capsules; life prediction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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