Development and Improvement of Quality Assured Thermodynamic Understanding for use in Nuclear Waste Disposal Safety Case (DITUSC)
Objectives
Thermodynamic understanding and quality assured data in support of the Nuclear Waste Disposal Safety Case, with special focus given to a transversal understanding.
Description of the WP
This WP targets the consolidation and improvement of the knowledge to predict processes over long timescales in key fields for geological disposal of radioactive waste. Beyond the need to identify, critically assess and eventually define strategies to close existing safety-relevant data gaps and maintaining the know-how in the area of thermodynamics, this WP supports present and future capabilities for the reliable use of thermodynamic model calculations for the performance evaluation of various disposal configurations, for Safety Analyses and the development of the Safety Case.
Special focus is given to 1) the identification of data gaps supporting the understanding of the transport behaviour of safety-relevant radionuclides and organics; 2) the thermodynamic description of a set of perturbations (temperature and high saline conditions); 3) the thermodynamic description of solid-solutions and their role in radioactive waste management and disposal: 4) the interplay of thermodynamics and kinetics (including solid phases transformation, relevant redox phenomena and the illustrative case of spent fuel dissolution),
As a strategic study, this WP aims at developing a white paper summarizing the current thermodynamic understanding and promoting new scientific strategies to further support/improve the use of thermodynamics in the Safety Case of nuclear waste disposal facilities.
Outcomes
Summary of state of knowledge for thermodynamic understanding of identified SRA drivers, as prepared by teams of experts.
Involvement of the EURAD community, including:
Exchange meetings with WP leaders and target experts from previous projects (national, international) with the aim of implementing lessons learnt from previous projects.
Series of open workshops focussing on the individual topics to be tackled in Task 3, feeding also into the state of knowledge document and identification of gaps and limitations.
Organization of an open training action, with focus on students and young post-doc / researchers. Synergies with the NEA-TDB project will be sought / Several of the partners are already involved in the organization of these courses (i.e., KIT, Amphos 21, Empa, CEA).
Identification and prioritization of needs for the SC from the perspectives of the three colleges.
White paper summarizing the outcomes of the integral assessment and promoting new valuable R&D actions to further support/improve the use of thermodynamics in the Safety Case
