An inverse method predicting thermal fluxes in nuclear waste glass canisters during vitrification and cooling

Abstract

We report a method to model, simulate and predict high-level nuclear waste (HLW) thermal behavior over short and long time-scales. The approach relies on an inverse method using homogenized thermal fluxes at the HLW package surfaces during the vitrification process. The thermal simulation can then be used as input in subsequent structural analyses. This allows us to compare for two different vitrification processes the developed thermal stress build-up investigated inside the glass block. The first process is the original experimental vitrification process, without the presence of the radionuclides. The second one is a simulation made possible by the proposed inverse method, where the cooling and solidification for a HLW integrate the long-term heat source of the radionuclides.