scholarly journals NNWSI Waste Form Performance Test Development

1984 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
John K. Bates ◽  
Thomas J. Gerding

AbstractA test method has been developed to measure the release of radionuclides from the waste package under simulated NNWSI repository conditions, and to provide information concerning materials interactions that may occur in the repository. Data from 13 weeks of unsaturated testing are discussed and compared to that from a 13 week analog test. The data indicate that the waste form test is capable of producing consistent, reproducible results that will be useful in evaluating the role of the waste package in the long-term performance of the repository.

1988 ◽  
Vol 127 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. G. Piepho ◽  
P. J. Turner ◽  
P. W. Reimus

ABSTRACTRadiolysis may significantly affect the long-term performance of nuclear waste packages in a geologic repository. Radiolysis of available moisture and air in an unsaturated or saturated environment will create transient species that can significantly change the pH and/or Eh of the available moisture. These changes can influence rates of containment corrosion, waste form dissolution, and radionuclide solubilities and transport.Many of the pertinent radiochemical reactions are not completely understood, and most of the associated rate constants are poorly characterized. To help identify the important radiochemical reactions, rate constants, species, and environmental conditions, an importance theory code, SWATS (Sensitivity With Adjoint Theory-Sparse version)-LOOPCHEM, has been developed for the radiolytic chemical kinetics model in the radiolysis code LOOPCHEM. The LOOPCHEM code calculates the concentrations of various species in a radiolytic field over time. The SWATS-LOOPCHEM code efficiently calculates: 1) the importance (relative to a defined response of interest) of each species concentration over time, 2) the sensitivity of each parameter of interest, and 3) the importance of each equation in the radiolysis model. The calculated results will be used to guide future experimental and modeling work for determining the importance of radiolysis on waste package performance. A demonstration (the importance of selected concentrations and the sensitivities of selected parameters) of the SWATS-LOOPCHEM code is provided for illustrative purposes, and no attempt is made at this time to interpret the results for waste package performance assessment purposes.


Author(s):  
Chunhui Wu ◽  
Susan C. Mantell ◽  
Jane H. Davidson

Abstract Polymer components have been proposed for use in domestic solar hot water heating systems. A polymer heat exchanger is under development for such systems. For heat transfer considerations, the heat exchanger will be comprised of many thin walled tubes. The heat exchanger must survive 10 years of service at high pressure (1.55 MPa) and high temperature (82°C). A novel method has been developed for evaluating the long term performance (creep) of the polymer tubing. Traditional creep testing, performed with dog bone test specimens can not be applied because the thin walled tubing has anisotropic material properties. Consequently, performance must be evaluated directly on the extruded tubing. The method entails wrapping a Constantan wire around the tube specimen to continuously record the hoop strain. For pressure loading of tubing, this method offers significant improvements over strain gage instrumentation. In this paper, the test method is described, an analysis of the strain transfer between the tubing and wire wrap is presented, and strain data for polypropylene tubing measured with a strain gage and wire wrap are compared. The data show that the wire measurement method can be successfully used for the characterization of long term mechanical behavior of polymer tubes.


1986 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
G H Isaac ◽  
J R Atkinson ◽  
D Dowson ◽  
B M Wroblewski

A number of polyethylene acetabular cups (59) and femoral stems (38) of Charnley hip prostheses were obtained following revision surgery and examined by scanning electron microscopy. In many cases, acrylic cement particles were embedded in the articulating surface of the cups. These particles caused surface pitting. The appearance of the articulating surfaces suggested that some cement had been present from the time of arthroplasty. In other cups there was evidence of cement ingress during the service life. Failure to use sufficient cement at arthroplasty resulted in cavities on the backs of the cups. Many femoral heads had become scratched in vivo, the surface roughness increasing from an initial value less than 0.02 μm Ra to a value on removal of 0.07 μm Ra. The increased roughness increases the amount of wear in the polyethylene sockets. Laboratory tests show that retrieved acrylic cement particles will scratch stainless steel, and it is our conclusion that entrapped cement will damage both components of the prosthesis and may cause premature failure.


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