JRP 07-18

Partners

CEA

EC-JRC-ITU

CNRS

UPC

Contact

Dr. Catherine Corbel
Laboratoire des Solides Irradiés Ecole Polytechnique, F-91128 Palaiseau, France
E-mail e-mail

Properties of nuclear fuel/water interfaces under ion and electron beam irradiation relevant to the radiolysis effects on long term spent nuclear fuel storage

Status

 
Ongoing - Planned from October 2007 till April 2009

Goals

This proposal is part of an ongoing long term program aiming to identify the basic mechanisms by which radiolysis contribute to the evolution of UOX spent fuel/water interfaces. It is a follow up of the joint research project, JP 04-16, where several approaches are used to determine the specific features of gamma, beta and alpha radiolysis at UOX spent fuel/water interfaces. The focus is on setting up in-situ techniques to yield new data and information on the transient species that exist only under radiation field. It includes experiments on real (1) and model systems (2) that are performed at different facilities.
(1) in hot cells with spent fuel/water interfaces
(2)-a in glove boxes with alpha doped UO2 (Pu)/water interfaces
(2)-b in accelerator laboratories with high-purity or doped UO2 /water interfaces irradiated with accelerator delivered beams. The He2+ ions or e- delivered by the accelerators emerge in water at the interface with energy in the same range as those of the He2+ ions or e- produced by alpha or beta particles emitted by radioelements.
The model systems are designed to examine how their radiolytic response depends on one specific property pertinent to the real systems.

Expected results

This follow-up proposal has for first aim to produce a consistent set of new data in the field of radiolysis at nuclear fuel/water interfaces.
The second aim is to reach the operating stage for the in-line equipments under testing.
The third one is to test (i) new measurement techniques and (ii) new model systems.
For these last purposes, the complementary expertise available in JP-04 16 is extended by including new competences from partners 01 and 03 with two new teams associated to the proposal. A post-doctoral fellowship is applied.

Reports