A comparison of how different industries are addressing the development and selection of materials to use for such purposes as nuclear and other hazardous waste disposal and transport, structures designed to last a long time, and systems subject to economic pressures that keep them from frequent mai
This report analyzes the expected corrosion behavior of nuclear fuel waste containers in a conceptual Canadian disposal vault. The container materials considered are dilute titanium alloys and oxygen-free copper. The report presents various models that have been developed to predict container lifetimes, including the currently used model which does not take into account limitation of crevice corrosion and an outline of a model in which crevice corrosion is limited by repassivation. The disposal vault conditions considered change with time as the initially trapped oxygen is consumed and as the heat and radiation produced by the waste decay. The appendices contain detailed reassessments of the corrosion behavior of the two types of containers, in which model assumptions are examined and failure modes discussed.
