GAS-GENERATION EXPERIMENTS FOR LONG-TERM STORAGE OF TRU WASTES AT WIPP

An experimental investigation was conducted for gas generation in contact-handled transuranic (CH-TRU) wastes subjected for several years to conditions similar to those expected to occur at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) should the repository eventually become inundated with brine. Various types of actual CH-TRU wastes were placed into 12 corrosion-resistant vessels. The vessels were loosely filled with the wastes, which were submerged in synthetic brine having the same chemical composition as that in the WIPP vicinity. The vessels were also inoculated with microbes found in the Salado Formation at WIPP. The vessels were sealed, purged, and the approximately 750-ml headspace was pressurized with nitrogen gas to approximately 146 atmospheres to create anoxic conditions at the lithostatic pressure expected in the repository were it inundated. The temperature was maintained at the expected 30 C. The test program objective was to measure the quantities and species of gases generate d by metal corrosion, radiolysis, and microbial activity. These data will assist in the specification of the rates at which gases are produced under inundated repository conditions for use in the WIPP Performance Assessment computer models. These experiments were very carefully designed, constructed, instrumented, and performed. Approximately 6-1/2 years of continuous, undisturbed testing were accumulated. Several of the vessels showed significantly elevated levels of generated gases, virtually all of which was hydrogen. One vessel measured over 4.2% hydrogen, by volume. Two other vessels generated well over 1% hydrogen, and another was at nearly 1%. Only small quantities of other gases, principally carbon dioxide, were detected. Gas generation was found to depend strongly on the waste composition. The maximum hydrogen generation occurred in tests containing carbon steel. Average corrosion penetration rates in carbon-steel of up to 2.3 microns per year were deduced. Conversion of carbon to carbon dioxide was calculated to be up to 4.7 (micro)g-mol/yr/g-carbon