Book Description
While the long-term storage of high-level wastes is juststarting in some countries, low and medium-level wastes have beenstored for several decades. Further, interim storage of spent fuel hasbeen extended at many locations far beyond the intended time span. Oneof the priorities of this book is a discussion of the deleteriouseffects observed under these storage conditions, or under simulatedstorage condition tests. One chronic problem is the possibility thatmicrobially influenced corrosion could be occurring in the wet storageof spent fuel, thereby initiating or accelerating corrosion. Anotherproblem is the presence of biofilms which may be breaking down thestructure of waste forms, thereby jeopardising their integrity.
The book is organised around four topics: policy matters, fundamentaltechnical issues, microbial processes in the interim storage of spentnuclear fuel, and repository storage of spent fuel. Some of the datapresented indicate that previous engineering conditions are changingor deteriorating at a different rate (faster or slower) thanpredicted. Fundamental issues include microbial biofilm development onmatrices, microbial influenced corrosion, bioaccumulation ofradionuclides, etc. ... Read more