Calculation of Corrosion Rates of Alpha-Doped UO2

Abstract

A previously developed radiolysis model has been used to simulate experiments from four laboratories. The source strengths in the experiments with UO2, doped with 238Pu, were 0.01, 0.1, and 1 Ci/g. The agreement was good with the experimental results of Stroes-Gascoyne et al. for their sample with 0.1 Ci/g. Their sample containing 0.01 Ci/g gave a factor-of-3-higher calculated corrosion rate compared with the experimental rate. In the experiments of Cobos et al. and of Kelm and Bohnert, using alpha-doped UO2, the calculated corrosion rates were somewhat lower than the experimental rates. However, recent experiments by Rondinella et al. using UO2 with 10% doped 233U gave considerably lower corrosion rates in good agreement with the model. The calculated corrosion rates for the same source strength were about the same for the experiments by Stroes-Gascoyne et al., Kelm and Bohnert, and Cobos et al. However, the experimental rates varied considerably. The agreement was not good with experiments using Pu(VI) dissolved in solution, in which case the calculated corrosion rate was ten times or more than ten times lower than the experimental rate. The reason for this disagreement could be a chemical effect of Pu(VI) in the solution.