Grout durability within miniaturised Intermediate Level Waste drums at early stages of interior volume expansion induced by encapsulated metallic corrosion

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. [Display omitted] •Accelerated corrosion experiments on uranium encapsulated in grout.•Grout degradation due to interior corrosion–induced volume expansion.•Cracks in the grout initiate and propagate during early corrosion stages.•Migration of the corrosion products does not occur at early corrosion stages.