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Review the Corrosion Mechanism in the Spent Nuclear Fuel Cask Through the Mass-Balance Equations and Chemical Reactions
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For the sake of future generations, the management of radioactive waste is essential. The disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is considered an urgent challenge to ensure human safety by storing it until its radioactivity drops to a negligible level. Evaluating the safety of disposal facilities is crucial to guarantee their durability for more than 100,000 years, a period sufficient for SNF radioactivity to become ignored. Past studies have proposed various parameters for forecasting the safety of SNF disposal. Among these, radiochemistry and electrochemistry play pivotal roles in predicting the corrosion-related chemical reactions occurring within the SNF and the structural materials of disposal facilities. Our study considers an extreme scenario where the SNF canister becomes compromised, allowing underground water to infiltrate and contact the SNF. We aim to improve the corrosion mechanism and mass-balance equation compared with what Shoesmith et al. proved under the same circumstances. To enhance the comprehensibility of the chemical reactions occurring within the breached SNF canister, we have organized these reactions into eight categories: mass diffusion, alpha radiolysis, adsorption, hydrate formation, solidification, decomposition, ionization, and oxidation. After categorization, we define how each species interacts with others and calculate the rate of change in species’ concentrations resulting from these reactions. By summing up the concentration change rates of each species due to these reactions, we redefine the mass-balance equations for each species. These newly categorized equations, which have not been explained in detail previously, offer a detailed description of corrosion reactions. This comprehensive understanding allows us to evaluate the safety implications of a compromised SNF canister and the associated disposal facilities by numerically solving the mass-balance equations.
