DESCRIPTION OF THE SOFTWARE AND INTEGRATING PLATFORM

Abstract

The Cementitious Barriers Partnership (CBP) Project is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration supported by the United States Department of Energy (US DOE) Office of Waste Processing. The objective of the CBP project is to develop a set of tools to improve understanding and prediction of the long-term structural, hydraulic, and chemical performance of cementitious barriers used in nuclear applications. A multi-disciplinary partnership of federal, academic, private sector, and international expertise has been formed to accomplish the project objective. In addition to the US DOE, the CBP partners are the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), Vanderbilt University (VU)/Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP), Energy Research Center of the Netherlands (ECN), and SIMCO Technologies, Inc. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is providing support under a Memorandum of Understanding. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is providing research under an Interagency Agreement. Neither the NRC nor NIST are signatories to the CRADA. The periods of cementitious performance being evaluated are >100 years for operating facilities and > 1000 years for waste management. The set of simulation tools and data developed under this project will be used to evaluate and predict the behavior of cementitious barriers used in near surface engineered waste disposal systems, e.g., waste forms, containment structures, entombments, and environmental remediation, including decontamination and decommissioning analysis of structural concrete components of nuclear facilities (spent-fuel pools, dry spent-fuel storage units, and recycling facilities such as fuel fabrication, separations processes). Simulation parameters will be obtained from prior literature and will be experimentally measured under this project, as necessary, to demonstrate application of the simulation tools for three prototype applications (waste form in concrete vault, high-level waste tank grouting, and spent-fuel pool). Test methods and data needs to support use of the simulation tools for future applications will be defined. The CBP project is a five-year effort focused on reducing the uncertainties of current methodologies for assessing cementitious barrier performance and increasing the consistency and transparency of the assessment process. The results of this project will enable improved risk-informed, performance-based decision-making and support several of the strategic initiatives in the DOE Office of Environmental Management Engineering & Technology Roadmap. Those strategic initiatives include (1) enhanced tank closure processes; (2) enhanced stabilization technologies; (3) advanced predictive capabilities; (4) enhanced remediation methods; (5) adapted technologies for site-specific and complex-wide DD (6) improved SNF storage, stabilization and disposal preparation; (7) enhanced storage, monitoring and stabilization systems; and (8) enhanced long-term performance evaluation and monitoring.