Materials chemistry ensuring safe, indefinite isolation of used nuclear fuel

加拿大的废核燃料长期管理计划依靠天然和工程屏障，确保安全控制放射性并将其与人和环境隔离。工程屏障系统将采用由膨润土缓冲箱包围的耐用旧燃料容器，将在一个愿意和知情的东道社区附近的深层地质处置库中安置。铜涂层UFC容纳使用过的核燃料棒束;因此，它们的寿命是工程屏障系统安全性能的一个重要因素。随着处置库环境的演变，腐蚀是可能影响UFC性能的降解模式之一，因此一个关键的挑战是自信地预测UFC以及使用过的核燃料本身在至少一百万年的时间内的腐蚀行为。 该联盟项目将利用实验和建模工具，沿着地球母亲的自然证据，详细了解UFC和核燃料的降解过程，以建立对长期预测的信心。该项目的主要目标是调查预期DGR条件下铜和使用过的核燃料的腐蚀情况，以提高基本的科学认识，并回答科学家，公众和核监管机构提出的剩余问题。 这个为期5年的项目由NSERC和核废物管理组织（NWMO）资助，将与其他三家负责本国核燃料废物管理的公司合作执行：SKB（瑞典），Nagra（瑞士）和NUMO（日本）。最终，通过该联盟项目产生的信息将被纳入每个公司的计划，以开发用于深层地质储存库的UFC并确保其安全性和寿命。

Canada's plan for long-term management of used nuclear fuel relies on natural and engineered barriers to ensure safe containment and isolation of radioactivity from people and the environment. The engineered barrier system, which will employ durable used fuel containers (UFCs) surrounded by bentonite clay buffer boxes will be emplaced in a deep geological repository (DGR) within the vicinity of a willing and informed host community. The copper-coated UFCs hold used nuclear fuel bundles; therefore, their longevity is an important factor in the safe performance of the engineered barrier system. As the repository environment evolves over time, corrosion is one of the degradation modes that could impact the performance of the UFCs, so a key challenge is to confidently predict the corrosion behaviour of the UFCs, and the used nuclear fuel itself, over a period of at least a million years. This Alliance project will provide a detailed understanding of the degradation processes of UFCs and nuclear fuel, using experimental and modeling tools, along with natural evidence from Mother Earth, to build confidence in long-term predictions. The key objective of this project is to investigate the corrosion of copper and used nuclear fuel under anticipated DGR conditions, to improve the underlying scientific understanding and answer the remaining questions raised by scientists, the public, and the nuclear regulators. This 5-year project, funded by NSERC and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) will be performed in partnership with three other companies responsible for nuclear fuel waste management in their home countries: SKB (Sweden), Nagra (Switzerland), and NUMO (Japan). Ultimately information generated through this Alliance project will be integrated into each company's plans for developing UFCs for a deep geologic repository and ensuring its safety and longevity.