Estimation of centerline temperature of the rare earth glass waste form

High level glass waste forms are to be stored in the storage building before final disposal. The waste form storage vault should be operated using mechanically induced cooling system to remove the decay heat preventing overheat of the vault and devitrification of glass waste form in the canister. In order to determine thermal stability of the waste form immobilizing rare earth waste generated from the electrowinning process of the pyrochemical process, the centerline temperature of the rare earth glass waste form was calculated using steady-state conduction equation in a long and solid cylinder type waste form of constant thermal conductivity and uniform heat generation. To verify the effects of TRU content in the rare earth waste on the centerline temperature, the TRU recovery ratio (TRR) was varied from 80% to 100%. It was revealed that thermal stability of waste form in case of 0.3 m diameter was not affected by the TRU recovery ratio in the electrowinning process, meaning that the waste form size is thermally reasonable due to the low centerline temperature being far below the glass transition temperature of the rare earth glass waste form