Mechanical behavior of the asbestos-cement container for geological disposal of α level technological wastes from COGEMA reprocessing plants

For the safety assessment of the SGN asbestos cement container concept selected by COGEMA for the conditioning of cemented technological wastes from the UP3-UP2 800 reprocessing plants, a general survey has been carried out to confirm both its confinement capacity and its mechanical strength. This safety assessment relates to the latter aspect. It implies two stages: first, the material characterization of asbestos cement and epoxide resin used in sealing and assembling; second, the finite element calculation of induced stresses and strains under storage conditions with regards to the experimented mechanical characteristics. The authors infer some damage in packaging materials in case of misoperation in conditioning process