In the UK, the typical route being followed to handle metallic Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) derived from decladding of irradiated nuclear fuel is to primarily deposit it within stainless steel drums/boxes and subsequently encapsulate it into grout. Thus, a monolithic bond between the waste and the encapsulants can be achieved. However, recent inspections have revealed bulges around the circumference in a considerable proportion of the inspected packages. This distortion has been ascribed to the interior metallic corrosion–induced volume expansion, occurring throughout the waste packages storage period. Throughout this period, the volume expansion taking place in the core of the ILW drums has imposed continuously growing levels of strain on the surrounding encapsulants, i.e. grout and steel confinement. As a result, the encapsulants may exhibit considerable damage, in the form of cracks in the grout or/and steel distortion, threatening the integrity of the packages and, consequently, raising safety concerns within the nuclear community. Herein, experimental work performed on ILW drum–simulant packages is described, attempting to evaluate the performance of the packages under an internal corrosion–induced volume expansion.

在英国，处理因辐照核燃料的脱壳而产生的金属中级废物（ILW）的典型方法是将其首先沉积在不锈钢桶/箱中，然后将其封装成浆液。因此，可以实现废物和密封剂之间的整体结合。但是，最近的检查发现，在被检查的包装中有相当一部分在圆周上凸出。这种变形归因于内部金属腐蚀引起的体积膨胀，在整个废物包装存储期间都会发生。在整个这段时间里，ILW鼓形筒芯中发生的体积膨胀使周围的密封剂（即灌浆和钢密闭）的应变水平不断提高。因此，密封剂可能会以灌浆中的裂缝或/和钢变形的形式表现出相当大的损坏，从而威胁包装的完整性，并因此引起核界的安全隐患。在这里，描述了在ILW鼓模拟包装上进行的实验工作，试图评估在内部腐蚀引起的体积膨胀下包装的性能。