Understanding the behaviour of aluminium fuel cladding during wet and dry storage at Sellafield
About the Project
SATURN_Nuclear_CDT
The Pile Fuel Cladding Silo (PFCS) was the first Intermediate Level Waste storage facility built at Sellafield. The Silo was commissioned in 1952 and was used to store primarily waste resulting from the de-canning of aluminium clad Windscale Pile and Magnox clad Calder reactor fuel.
This waste has been stored in the silo for decades under an argon atmosphere. PFCS is undergoing a programme of retrievals during which the waste is removed from the silo and placed into individual waste containers for storage in a modern storage facility. Ultimately these containers will be finished, likely by flood grouting prior to disposal to a Geological Disposal Facility (GDF).
The history of the aluminium waste stored in PFCS is complex and its corrosion behaviour is likely to be impacted by factors such as reactor irradiation, pond storage, de-canning stresses, historical waste fires, access to humid air and water in the silo, coupling between waste metals in the silo or with the stainless-steel waste container in interim storage etc. Therefore, it is not clear what form the aluminium waste will take at the point retrievals, storage, and treatment. This is important because pure aluminium (and the Pile fuel aluminium alloy) is known to be highly reactive under high pH conditions. Therefore, it is likely that flood grouting of PFCS aluminium waste will lead to high rates of hydrogen generation, and this technique may be unsuitable for finishing of this waste.
The aim of this PhD is to understand the corrosion behaviour of PFCS aluminium waste under the silo storage conditions. Work will initially focus on how that corrosion behaviour is affects (i) by the radiation fields present under storage conditions and (ii) by electrochemical interactions with uranium, steel and graphite materials within the silo. This will be followed by study of how these effects influence the corrosion of PFCS aluminium within grout. The results of this work will influence strategy for the retrieval, conditioning and disposal of PFCS aluminium waste as well as aluminium wastes across Sellafield Site more broadly.
This project is a collaboration between Lancaster University and Sellafield Ltd. Experimental work will be conducted primarily in Lancaster’s UTGARD (Uranium-Thorium beta-Gamma Active R&D) Lab.
This project is offered through the SATURN CDT (Skills And Training Underpinning a Renaissance in Nuclear Centre for Doctoral Training).
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