Grant: Industrial Research Chairs

Over the past 10 years, an industrial research chair sponsored by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), has been in place in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Western Ontario to determine the performance of nuclear fuel (UO2) and nuclear waste containers under long term repository conditions. This research is in support of the NWMO's Deep Geologic Repository Technology Program. Considerable progress has been made and the chair agreement will be extended for another 5 year term from November 2010. The long-term management of nuclear wastes has been identified as an important Canadian environmental issue, and a viable nuclear industry requires a permanent solution to this problem. The primary goals of the project are to understand the corrosion performance of nuclear fuel and nuclear waste containers, and to develop the experimental database required to support the development of performance assessment models. The primary emphasis is on the redox chemistry expected to develop within a failed waste container and how this will influence the corrosion of the materials inside the container: the fuel, fuel cladding, and carbon steel vessel. The information developed will be incorporated into models to assess the performance of engineered barriers within a Canadian high level waste repository. Much of the information generated will be value to other national waste management programs.