The temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel in special steel and concrete drums called dry casks is necessary because there are only a few experimental facilities for permanent geological storage of the spent fuel which is piling up onsite at nuclear power plants. I recently posted an article about a new research program at Western University in Canada which is exploring corrosion processes on the surface of dry casks with the intent of improving the corrosion resistance of the casks.
Samantha Gateman is an award-winning electrochemist and the new chair of the radiation-included chemistry at Western. Her research will be funded through a new one million one hundred-thousand-dollar grant from the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO).
Gateman’s arrival at Western will expand the strong team at the university of chemists, physicists and engineering researchers who are acknowledged leaders in testing solutions to the problem of long term storage of spent nuclear fuel. Gateman is currently at the Sorbonne University in France. She will begin her work at Western in January 2022.
Gateman specializes in predicting and measuring electrochemical processes that cause corrosion at very small length scales. She researches ways to prevent these types of corrosion degradation. Her work is critical as the world struggles to manage its stockpiles of spent nuclear fuel. The spent fuel must be safely stored with multiple layers of security for thousands of years to protect it from corrosion, seepage or radiation leaks.
Gateman’s research is unique. She has constructed miniature probes that are able to gauge electrochemical reactions at a microscopic level. One way of expressing her work is to say that she manufactures and measures corrosion on metal surfaces. She studies how the structure of the surface of a metal at a micro-and-nano-scale affects the initiation of corrosion in order to predict where. when and how corrosion will take place.
Gateman explained, “Metals may look uniform when you look at them with your naked eye, but when you place that metal under a microscope, you’ll see that they’re quite heterogeneous and this can dictate the way that the material will corrode.”
Gateman has applied her special methods of detecting and preventing corrosion in thermal spray coatings on large turbines in hydroelectric generators in Quebec. By applying a similar approach to nuclear waste research, she hopes to be able to identify how impurities in the dry casks’ cold-spray copper coating could influence their corrosion as well as how to minimize these impurities by changing the coating-fabrication parameters.
Gateman’s research will fill a gap in comprehending the lifespan of these coatings and mitigating the potential degradation that might occur. The intended result will be long-lasting storage of spent nuclear fuel and safety for people and the planetary environment.
Gateman said, “I’m passionate about the environment …and really happy to be working on this project to ensure the safety of the future generations of Canadians and make sure that we have enough energy for everyone for years to come. The reason I’m drawn to corrosion science is because it’s directly applicable and relevant, and this keeps my goals very focused.”