Storage of nuclear waste, concerns over the safety of the containers News

the LONDON - The risk for now it is theoretical, but no less disturbing. The current methods of storage of nuclear waste are less stable than you think and could release radioactive material to be harmful. This is what emerges from a study published in Nature Materials by scientists at the Ohio state University, who have conducted research on the disposal of nuclear waste, and found that glass and ceramic materials are currently used to isolate the radioactive waste, may interact with the stainless steel used to manufacture the containers, accelerating corrosion and increasing the nuclear contamination of the environment, polluting the environment, potentially water sources and affecting the health of life forms in the surrounding areas.

"In the real-world scenario, the waste in glass or ceramic would be in close contact with the stainless steel containers, and in some specific conditions the stainless steel may corrode quickly, creating an environment that is super-aggressive and capable of contaminating the surrounding materials," explains Xiaolei Guo , author of the study and deputy director of the Center for Performance and Design of Nuclear Waste Forms and Containers in Ohio. "Radioactive waste can remain dangerous to humans and the environment for hundreds of thousands of years. It is for this reason that there are plans to store such waste at about a kilometer depth, in what are called 'reservoirs deep geological', the purpose is to prevent the possibility of exposure to radiation," continues the researcher. The research team, led by Gerald Frankel the Ohio State University, has studied the corrosion rate of steel in lab simulations aimed at recreating the environment of the deposit. "Our study has shown that the release rate may be increased because of the interactions of corrosion between the different materials used to isolate these wastes," explains Guo. "The corrosion could be attributed to the chemical changes that occur within a limited space in time. Our study should be taken into consideration in the assessment of the disposal of nuclear waste. You have to select the barriers that are compatible to further optimize the performance of the system of geological repository", conclude the researchers.

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