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In Sweden spent nuclear fuel is planned to be placed 500 m down in the bedrock. The spent nuclear fuel will be contained in copper canisters. The reason behind the selection of copper is its thermodynamic stability against corrosion in the depository. The copper will be exposed to mechanical loading and will be plastically deformed due to creep. The canisters will be sealed by friction stir welding. Since the canisters have to survive intact for many thousands of years, the properties of the welds are critical. Oxygen free P-doped copper (Cu-OFP) is selected for its excellent creep ductility properties and corrosion resistance. In this thesis work creep ductility behavior of friction stir welded copper chosen at different areas of the weld is evaluated by using the test slow strain rate tensile test. Samples are chosen at different weld areas namely weld, cross weld and HAZ. A sum of 21 specimens is tested. These tests are achieved at three various strain rates and each rate are carried out at three different temperatures. The strain rates used for tests are 1e-4, 3e-6 and 1e-7 [1/s]. The samples are strained until rupture, 20% and 5% of the gauge length. Yield strength and tensile strength are usually decreasing with increasing temperature and at higher temperature the material can be easily deformed. Few strange behaviors are also observed for the samples from HAZ areas at strain rate 1e-7[1/s]. The experimental results are justified by using the Knock-Mecking model. The parametersand ω were evaluated by curve fitting method.

Three models have been developed and applied in the performance assessment of a final repository. They are based on accepted theories and experimental results for known and possible mechanisms that may dominate in the oxidative dissolution of spent fuel and the release of nuclides from a canister. Assuming that the canister is breached at an early stage after disposal, the three models describe three sub-systems in the near field of the repository, in which the governing processes and mechanisms are quite different. In the model for the oxidative dissolution of the fuel matrix, a set of kinetic descriptions is provided that describes the oxidative dissolution of the fuel matrix and the release of the embedded nuclides. In particular, the effect of autocatalytic reduction of hexavalent uranium by dissolved H2, using UO2 (s) on the fuel pellets as a catalyst, is taken into account. The simulation results suggest that most of the radiolytic oxidants will be consumed by the oxidation of the fuel matrix, and that much less will be depleted by dissolved ferrous iron. Most of the radiolytically produced hexavalent uranium will be reduced by the autocatalytic reaction with H2 on the fuel surface. It will reprecipitate as UO2 (s) on the fuel surface, and thus very little net oxidation of the fuel will take place. In the reactive transport model, the interactions of multiple processes within a defective canister are described, in which numerous redox reactions take place as multiple species diffuse. The effect of corrosion of the cast iron insert of the canister and the reduction of dissolved hexavalent uranium by ferrous iron sorbed onto iron corrosion products and by dissolved H2 are particularly included. Scoping calculations suggest that corrosion of the iron insert will occur primarily under anaerobic conditions. The escaping oxidants from the fuel rods will migrate toward the iron insert. Much of these oxidants will, however, be consumed by ferrous iron that comes from the corrosion of iron. The nonscavenged hexavalent uranium will be reduced by ferrous iron sorbed onto the iron corrosion products and by dissolved hydrogen. In the transport resistance network model, the transport of reactive actinides in the near field is simulated. The model describes the transport resistance in terms of coupled resistors by a coarse compartmentalisation of the repository, based on the concept that various ligands first come into the canister and then diffuse out to the surroundings in the form of nuclide complexes. The simulation results suggest that carbonate accelerates the oxidative dissolution of the fuel matrix by stabilizing uranyl ions, and that phosphate and silicate tend to limit the dissolution by the formation of insoluble secondary phases. The three models provide powerful tools to evaluate "what if" situations and alternative scenarios involving various interpretations of the repository system. They can be used to predict the rate of release of actinides from the fuel, to test alternative hypotheses and to study the response of the system to various parameters and conditions imposed upon it. / QC 20100521

Företaget Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB) håller på att utveckla en slutförvaringskapsel som kommer innehålla avfall från den svenska kärnkraften. Det är dock fortfarande en process under utveckling och därför undersöks olika typer av metoder och kapselmaterial för att kunna tillverka en hållbar och säker kapsel. Kapseln består av ett hölje av kopparrör med svetsad botten och lock och en insats med stållock. Insatsen är en cylindrisk konstruktion  av segjärn och innehåller en svetsad stålkassett för att skapa utrymmen till det använda kärnbränslet. Insatsen innehåller bland annat stålrör som under tillverkning får utstå en gjutprocess med segjärn och erhåller efter det icke homogena egenskaper. Målet med undersökningen är hur stor påverkan gjutningen har på stålets kemiska sammansättning samt mikrostrukturer. Det som orsakar de inhomogena egenskaperna är främst värmebehandlingen som driver diffusionen av kol från gjutjärnet till stålet, som då ger ett hårdare men sprödare material. Med hjälp av experiment och simuleringar upptäcks hur mycket kol som diffunderar in i stålet samt ändringar i den kemiska sammansättningen i de påverkade zonerna. Identifiering av fasomvandlingar, diffusion och ändringar i mikrostrukturer är stora faktorer som i sin tur ändrar de mekaniska egenskaperna i stålet. / The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) have developed a final storage canister that will contain waste from the Swedish nuclear power plants. However, it is still in a development phase and therefore different types of methods and canister materials are investigated to produce the most durable and safe canister. The canister is made of a copper tube with a welded bottom and lid with an insert. The insert is a cylindrical construction of nodular cast iron that contains a welded steel cassette, to make space for the spent fuel, and a steel lid. The steel tubes showed inhomogeneous properties after being exposed to a casting around them. The aim of this investigation is to clarify the impact of casting on the chemical composition of the steel as well as the microstructure. The cause to the inhomogeneous properties were the diffusion of carbon from the cast iron to the steel, which then produced a harder and more brittle material. Experiments and simulations were used to see the carbon diffusion into the steel as well as what happens with the chemical composition in the affected zones. Identification of phase changes, diffusion and microstructures contributed to changes of mechanical properties in the steel.

Materials intended for disposal of spent nuclear fuel require a particular combination of physical and chemical properties. The driving forces and mechanisms underlying the material’s behavior must be scientifically understood in order to enable modeling at the relevant time- and length-scales. The processes that determine the mechanical behavior of copper canisters and iron inserts, as well as the evolution of their mechanical properties, are strongly dependent on the properties of various defects in the bulk copper and iron alloys. The first part of the present thesis deals with precipitation in the cast iron insert. A nodular cast iron insert will be used as the inner container of the spent nuclear fuel. Precipitation is investigated by computing effective interaction energies for point defect pairs (solute–solute and vacancy–solute) in bcc iron using first-principles calculations. The main considered impurities in the iron matrix include 3sp (Si, P, S) and 3d (Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu) solute elements. By computing interaction energies possibility of formation of different second phase particles such as late blooming phases (LBPs) in the cast iron insert is evaluated. The second part is devoted to the fundamentals of dislocations and their role in plastic deformation of metals. Deformation of single-crystal copper under high strain rates is simulated by employing dislocation dynamics (DD) method to examine the effect of strain rate on mechanical properties as well as dislocation microstructure development. Creep deformation of copper canister at low temperatures is studied. The copper canister will be used in the long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel as the outer shell of the waste package to provide corrosion protection. A glide rate is derived based on the assumption that at low temperatures it is controlled by the climb rate of jogs on the dislocations. Using DD simulation creep deformation of copper at low temperatures is modeled by taking glide but not climb into account. Moreover, effective stresses acting on dislocations are computed using the data extracted from DD simulations. / <p>QC 20170428</p>