Corrosion issues in nuclear waste disposal

This paper summarized some corrosion issues specific to nuclear waste disposal and illustrates them by the French geological clay concept for the reliable prediction of container degradation rate and engineering barrier integrity over extended periods, up to several thousands years. Among the items, the following are included: The importance of the underground repository conditions. The necessity of developing comprehensive semi-empirical models and also predictive models that must be based on the mechanisms of corrosion phenomena. The use of archaeological artefacts to demonstrate the feasibility of long term storage and to provide a database for testing and validating the models. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.