Affiliation:
1. Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, Texas 78238.
2. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
Abstract
Copper (Cu) is a candidate material for waste packages in geological disposal systems for high-level radioactive waste in Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Japan, and Canada. This paper reports experimental tests of Cu in the context of radioactive waste disposal applications. Experimental tests of Cu general corrosion and hydrogen evolution were conducted under anoxic conditions (less than 10 ppb of O2) using synthetic saline groundwater based on reference compositions of deep groundwaters in crystalline rock of the Canadian Shield. The results indicate that the Cu open-circuit potential and corrosion rates in anoxic waters were very sensitive to the residual O2 concentration in solution. The corrosion rates ranged from submicrometer to micrometer per year, depending on the residual O2 concentration level. The corrosion products were predominantly cuprous oxide (Cu2O). Chlorine was present in corrosion products for tests exposed to synthetic saline groundwater, but more work is needed to assess its role in the corrosion process. Minute amounts of hydrogen were detected from the autoclave as test cell, however, they cannot be simply correlated to Cu corrosion because of complication of the autoclave material corrosion.
Subject
General Materials Science,General Chemical Engineering,General Chemistry
Cited by
6 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献