Abstract

The Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission and Orano have developed a modeling tool named the Simulation Tool Of RAdiolysis Gas Emission (STORAGE) for assessing gas generation of intermediate-level waste. The first version of this model was designed to estimate gas (more specifically hydrogen) generation by radiolysis of organic materials contained in waste packages.

To verify the validity of the model, a series of measurements was performed on U, Pu–contaminated solid waste issued from the Orano plutonium laboratories at the MELOX facility. Twenty-one drums containing technological waste (gloves, bags, filters, metallic parts, etc.) packaged inside polyvinyl chloride sleeves were set up and hydrogen production was measured over a period of more than 1 year. Several levels of contamination and organic content were studied.

STORAGE calculations are conservative and most of the time in good agreement with experimental measurements with the uncertainties. As expected, the simplest cases (organic waste or filtering media) are well described by the model. The data are obviously more widely dispersed when the waste is composed of a mixture of organic materials and metal. Nevertheless, an understanding of the waste (package composition) allows a fairly precise description and ultimately a satisfactory estimation of the hydrogen production rate.

摘要

替代能源和原子能委员会和 Orano 开发了一种名为“辐射分解气体排放模拟工具 (STORAGE)”的建模工具，用于评估中放废物的气体产生。该模型的第一个版本旨在估计废物包中所含有机材料的辐射分解产生的气体（更具体地说是氢气）。

为了验证模型的有效性，对 MELOX 设施的 Orano 钚实验室发出的受 U、Pu 污染的固体废物进行了一系列测量。设置了 21 个装在聚氯乙烯套管内的技术废物（手套、袋子、过滤器、金属部件等）的桶，并在 1 年多的时间里测量了氢气的产量。研究了几种污染水平和有机物含量。

STORAGE 计算是保守的，并且在大多数情况下与具有不确定性的实验测量结果非常吻合。正如预期的那样，模型很好地描述了最简单的情况（有机废物或过滤介质）。当废物由有机材料和金属的混合物组成时，数据显然更加分散。然而，对废物（包装成分）的了解可以进行相当精确的描述，并最终对氢气产生率进行令人满意的估计。