Abstract
Understanding the physical and chemical properties of materials arising from nuclear meltdowns, such as the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents, is critical to supporting decommissioning operations and reducing the hazard to personnel and the environment surrounding the stricken reactors. Relatively few samples of meltdown materials are available for study, and their analysis is made challenging due to the radiation hazard associated with handling them. In this study, small-scale batches of low radioactivity (i.e., containing depleted uranium only) simulants for Chernobyl lava-like fuel-containing materials (LFCMs) have been prepared, and were found to closely approximate the microstructure and mineralogy of real LFCM. The addition of excess of ZrO2 to the composition resulted in the first successful synthesis of high uranium–zircon (chernobylite) by crystallisation from a glass melt. Use of these simulant materials allowed further analysis of the thermal characteristics of LFCM and the corrosion kinetics, giving results that are in good agreement with the limited available literature on real samples. It should, therefore, be possible to use these new simulant materials to support decommissioning operations of nuclear reactors post-accident.
Highlights
On 26th of April 1986, Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant underwent a catastrophic failure whilst undergoing an experimental power failure test
In this study, we present the results of an investigation to synthesise low radioactivity, accurate simulant like fuel-containing materials (LFCMs) and perform a preliminary evaluation of their corrosion behaviour
The presence of these phases was confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)/ Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis of each material, as shown in Fig. 2 and Previous studies that aimed to simulate LFCM were unable to promote the formation of U-rich zircon, often referred to as chernobylite [(Zr1−xUx)SiO4], which is present in real LFCM.[19,20,21]
Summary
On 26th of April 1986, Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant underwent a catastrophic failure whilst undergoing an experimental power failure test. It took several days to eventually quell the fire, in which time, radioactive particles were emitted into the surrounding area and the atmosphere, to be spread across the region ( Ukraine, Belarus and Russia) and parts of Europe. This event, classified as Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), was arguably the most serious nuclear incident to affect the world to date; it is known to have caused 31 direct deaths and a mass evacuation from a 30-km exclusion zone surrounding the reactor, that remains in place today.
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