Trial manufacturing of copper-carbon steel composite overpack

not registered; not registered; Tanai, Kenji 

This paper reports the results of design analysis and trial manufacturing of copper-carbon steel composite overpacks. The overpack is one of the key components of the engineered barrier system, hence, it is necessary to confirm the applicability of current technique in their manufacture. The Copper-Carbon steel composite overpack consists of a double container, an outer vessel made of oxygen-free, high-purity copper as the corrosion allowance material, and an inner vessel made of carbon steel as the pressure-resistant material. The trial manufacturing in this time, only the copper outer vessel has been fabricated. Both oxygen-free copper and oxygen-free phosphorus copper were used as materials for the outer vessel. For the shell and bottom portion, these materials were formed integrally by a backward extrusion method. For sealing the top cover plate to the main body, an electron-beam welding method was applied. After manufacturing, mechanical testing of specimens from the copper vessels were carried out. It was confirmed that current technique has sufficient feasibility to manufacture outer vessel. In addition, potential for irradiation embrittlement of the inner carbon-steel vessel by irradiation from vitrified waste over the life time of the overpack has been analyzed. It was shown that the small degree of irradiation embrittlement gives no significant impact on the pressure resistance of the carbon-steel vessel. Future research and development items regarding copper-carbon steel composite overpacks are also discussed.