Investigating porosity changes and stress mechanics of corroding nuclear wastes under confined expansion

As the UK prepares to invest in new operational nuclear power plants, industry and research organisations are also looking to decommission the UK’s existing nuclear legacy facilities. Fuel cladding, and corrosion products thereof, represent one of the major challenges to waste retrievals and storage at Sellafield and the wider nuclear industry. Waste is currently housed in aged storage facilities pressing retrieval and interim storage (such as the Magnox Swarf Storage Siloes) prior to immobilisation and geological storage. The volume and porosity changes arising are complex, and overall porosity increase and volume expansion have only been observed in unconfined cases, where reaction rates are appreciable. SATURN_Nuclear_CDT