Consideration of criticality in a nuclear waste repository

Abstract

The preliminary criticality analysis that was done suggests that the possibility of achieving critical conditions cannot be easily ruled out without looking at the geochemical process of assembly or the dynamics of the operation of a critical assembly. The evaluation of a critical assembly requires an integrated, consistent approach that includes evaluating the following: (1) the alteration rates of the layers of the container and spent fuel, (2) the transport of fissile material or neutron absorbers, and (3) the assembly mechanisms that can achieve critical conditions. The above is a non-trivial analysis and preliminary work suggests that with the loading assumed, enough fissile mass will leach from the HEU multi-purpose canisters to support a criticality. In addition, the consequences of an unpressurized Oklo type criticality would be insignificant to the performance of an unsaturated, tuff repository