The development of robust safety cases for geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) requires a solid understanding of its dissolution over very long timescales (up to a million years). The spent fuel dissolution is the main source term for the release of radionuclides under repository conditions, and it will control the release of radioactivity in the environment surrounding the engineered barriers (the near field) of a disposal facility once the engineered barrier system (EBS) has degraded and groundwater comes into contact with the spent fuel.
DISCO project represents a logical follow-up of earlier Euratom projects (such as SFS, NF-PRO, MICADO, REDUPP and FIRST-Nuclides) which focused on dissolution and radionuclide release from conventional UO2 spent fuels. In this sense, this project aims to fill the gap of knowledge on spent fuel dissolution arising from the development and use of novel types of fuel (Cr- doped and MOX).
Specific objectives of DISCO can be summarized as follows:
The expected gain in knowledge is essential for the Waste Management Organisations as well as is of interest for a wider range of potential users (e.g. research organisations). Therefore, the project also aims to disseminate the new knowledge through different channels described in order to reach a wider community.