Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T15:26:05.919Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Migration Behavior of Plutonium in Compacted Bentonite Under Reducing Condition Using Electromigration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2011

Kazuya Idemitsu
Affiliation:
[email protected], Kyushu university, Applied Quantum Physics and Nuclear Engineering, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-0395, Japan, +81928023492, +81928023501
Yosuke Yamasaki
Affiliation:
[email protected], Kyushu university, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
Syeda Afsarun Nessa
Affiliation:
[email protected], Kyushu university, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
Yaohiro Inagaki
Affiliation:
[email protected], Kyushu university, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
Tatsumi Arima
Affiliation:
[email protected], Kyushu university, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
Toshiaki Mitsugashira
Affiliation:
[email protected], Tohoku university, Oarai, 311-1313, Japan
Mitsuo Hara
Affiliation:
[email protected], Tohoku university, Oarai, 311-1313, Japan
Yoshimitsu Suzuki
Affiliation:
[email protected], Tohoku university, Oarai, 311-1313, Japan
Get access

Abstract

Carbon steel is one of the candidate overpack materials for high-level waste disposal and is expected to assure complete containment of vitrified waste glass during an initial period of 1000 years in Japan. Carbon steel overpack will be corroded by consuming oxygen introduced by repository construction after closure of repository and then will keep the reducing environment in the vicinity of repository. The migration of iron corrosion products through the buffer material will affect migration of redox-sensitive radionuclides. Therefore the authors have carried out electromigration experiments with source of iron ions supplied by anode corrosion of iron coupons attached to compacted bentonite. Authors tried to use plutonium in this experimental configuration to obtain the knowledge of migration behavior of actinides. Authors also used cesium as reference. The concentrations of iron and sodium showed nearly complementary distributions. It is expected that iron ion could migrate as ferrous ion through the interlayer of montmorillonite replacing exchangeable sodium ions in the interlayer. Concentration profiles of plutonium in bentonite grew as time supplying electric potential as long as 168 h. Plutonium migrated from the iron anode toward cathode as deeper than 1 mm of the interior of bentonite even in 48 h, though plutonium could not diffuse 1 mm for 2 years. On the other hand, profiles of cesium seemed to be controlled by ordinary diffusion because of large diffusion coefficient of cesium in bentonite as large as 10$^{-12}$ m$^{2}$/s. Drift of the cesium profile by electric potential gradient could be observed clearly after 240 h at individual experiment for cesium. Apparent dispersion coefficients of plutonium were calculated from the profiles and were as large as 10$^{-13}$ m$^{2}$/s. Since plutonium migration was accelerated by electric potential, plutonium chemical species would have positive charge and were estimated as PuOH$^{2+}$ or PuCl$^{2+}$ by the thermodynamic calculation. Thus this experiment can provide a diffusion field for cations under a reducing condition with ferrous ions in water-saturated bentonite.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. JNC, H12:Project of Establish the Scientific and Technical Basis for HLW Disposal in JAPAN, (JNC, Tokai Japan, 2000).Google Scholar
2. Idemitsu, K., Yano, S., Xia, X., Inagaki, Y., Arima, T., Mitsugashira, T.,Hara, M., Suzuki, Y. in Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXV, edited by McGrail, B.P. and Cragnolono, G. A. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 713, Pittsburgh, PA, 2001) pp.113120.Google Scholar
3. Y., Albinsson, Andersson, K., Böjesson, S., Allard, B., J. Contaminant Hydrology 12, 189(1996).Google Scholar
4. Idemitsu, K., Xia, X., Ichishima, T., Furuya, H., Inagaki, Y., Arima, T., Mitsugashira, T., Hara, M., Suzuki, Y. in Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXIII, edited by Shoesmith, S. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 608, Pittsburgh, PA, 1999), pp.261266.Google Scholar
5. Idemitsu, K., Yano, S., Xia, X., Kikuchi, Y., Inagaki, Y., Arima, T. in Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXVI, edited by Finch, R. J. and Bullen, D. B. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 757, Pittsburgh, PA, 2003) pp.657664.Google Scholar
6. Idemitsu, K., Xia, X., Kikuchi, Y., Inagaki, Y., Arima, T. in Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXVIII, edited by Hanchar, John M., Stroes-Gascoyne, Simcha, Browning, Lauren (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 824, Pittsburgh, PA, 2004) pp.491496.Google Scholar
7. Idemitsu, K., Xia, X., Kikuchi, Y., Inagaki, Y., Arima, T., Mitsugashira, T., Hara, M., and Suzuki, Y..in Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXVII, edited by Oversby, Virginia M., Werme, Lars O. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 807, Pittsburgh, PA, 2003) pp.591596.Google Scholar
8. Sato, H., Ashida, T., Kohara, Y., Yui, M., and Sasaki, N., J. Nucl. Sci. Tech. 29, 873 (1992).Google Scholar
9. Xia, X., Idemitsu, K., Mitsugashira, T., Arima, T., Inagaki, Y., J. Nucl. Sci. Technol. Suppllement 3, 572575(2002).Google Scholar
10. Idemitsu, K., Yamamoto, M., Yamasaki, Y., Inagaki, Y. and Arima, T..in Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XIX, edited by Pierre Van, Iseghem (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 932, Pittsburgh, PA, 2006) pp.943950.Google Scholar
11. Higashihara, T., Kinoshita, K., Sato, S., and Kozaki, T., Appl. Clay Sci. 26, 91 (2004).Google Scholar
12. Idemitsu, K., Furuya, H. and Inagaki, Y. in Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XVI, edited by Interrante, C.G. and Pabalan, R.T. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 294, Pittsburgh, PA, 1993), pp.467474.Google Scholar
13. Okamoto, A., Idemitsu, K., Furuya, H., Inagaki, Y. and Arima, T. in Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXII, edited by Wronkiewicz, D. J. and Lee, J. H. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 556, Warrendale, PA, 1999), pp.10911098.Google Scholar
14. Yui, M., Azuma, J., and Shibata, M. in JNC TN8400 99-070, 61 (1999).Google Scholar
15. Nessa, S. A., Memoirs of the Faculty of Engineering Kyushu University 67(1), 25 (2007).Google Scholar