Understanding the corrosion of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and the subsequent mobilization of released radionuclides, particularly under oxidizing conditions, is one of the key issues in evaluating the long-term performance of a nuclear waste repository. However, the large amounts of iron in the metal waste package may create locally reducing conditions that would lower corrosion rates for the SNF, as well as reduce the solubility of some key radionuclides, e.g., Tc and Np. In order to investigate the interactions among SNF-waste package-fluids, four smallscale (∼1:40 by length) waste package mockups were constructed using metals similar to those proposed for use in waste packages at the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain. Each mockup experiment differed with respect to water input, exposure to the atmosphere, and temperature. Simulated Yucca Mountain process water (YMPW) was injected into three of the mockups at a rate of 200 μL per day for five days a week using a calibrated needle syringe. The YMPW was prepared by equilibrating 50 mg/L silica as sodium metasilicate with air, and adding enough HCl to lower the pH to 7.6 in contact with an excess of powdered calcite.

X-ray powder diffraction and scanning electron microscopy confirm that, where corrosion occurred, the dominant corrosion product in all cases was magnetite. In the high temperature (60°C) experiment, hematite and a fibrous, Fe-O-Cl phase were also identified. The Fe(II)/Fe(III) ratios measured in the corrosion products using a wet chemistry technique indicate extremely low oxygen fugacities (10-36 bar). Experiments are in progress in which 0.1g powdered UO2 was included in the mock-up in order to investigate the relative kinetics of Fe and U oxidation and to identify the U corrosion products formed under these conditions.