Design and development of copper coatings for long term storage of used nuclear fuel

Within ongoing work, Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is demonstrating that copper coatings can be developed as viable corrosion barriers for used fuel nuclear containers, emplaced in a deep geological repository. As a means of assessing container design and feasibility, coated samples, manufactured via cold spray and electrodeposition have been produced and characterised. Corrosion testing for coated samples and wrought samples reveals that cold spray samples behave similar to wrought samples in 3 mol L−1 NaCl solution at room temperature. When oxygen is absent, corrosion has not been observed.