Investigation of irradiated soil byproducts

摘要

The high dose irradiation of windblown soil deposited onto the surface of spent nuclear fuel is of concern to long-term fuel sto- rage stability. Such soils could be exposed to radiation fields as great as 1.08×10~3 C/kg-s (15,000 R/hr) during the 40-year anticipated period of interim dry storage prior to placement at the proposed national repository. The total absorbed dose in these cases could be as high as 5×10~7 Gy (5×10~9 rads). This investigation evaluated the potential generation of explosive or combustible irradiation byproducts during this irradiation.