A coupled mechanical--chemical stability analysis for a low activity waste disposal facility at the Hanford site

摘要

The steel container and vitrified waste materials that comprise waste packages planned for subsurface disposal of low-activity wastes at Hanford are subject to corrosion processes that generate a net volumetric expansion. Stress state and deformation in an idealized disposal system were modeled as a function of expansion pressure. Potential expansion pressures from glass and steel corrosion product formation were estimated and compared with the computed critical inner pressures (P_c) required to induce mechanical instability. Even a moderate degree of steel corrosion was found to generate internal pressures significantly above P_c. However, a kinetics analysis suggests that between 270 and 2500 years would be required before the P_c is exceeded.