Amorphous, Corrosion-Resistant Coatings for Storage Canister

New technical advances in drilling technology have advanced the possibility of using very deep boreholes (3-5 km) into the crystalline basement rock for disposal of the nuclear waste. The design of the canister used to hold the nuclear waste is one of the primary engineered barriers in the design of geologic disposal systems. There is a need for novel canister designs and materials that can withstand the different factors that can lead to the degradation of the canister such as general corrosion, localized corrosion, stress corrosion cracking, microbially induced corrosion (MIC), galvanic corrosion, hydrogen embrittlement, and phase stability. In the proposed project, LM Group Holdings, Inc. propose to develop and apply amorphous alloys with high corrosion resistance that will be able to withstand severe environment conditions and improved surface characteristics for storage canisters to be able to operate these systems safer and for longer time compared to the state-of-the-art. Amorphous metals are a novel class of materials that have a disordered, non-crystalline, glassy structure. Due to their unique microstructure, amorphous metals combine ultrahigh strength, high hardness and ductility in one single material. Amorphous Metals are more corrosion resistant compared to conventional metals due to the lack of long- range periodicity, related grain boundaries and crystal defects such as dislocations and their compositions. This proposed project will build on LMGH’s extensive prior experience with amorphous metals based bimetallic structures for different applications. It involves development, demonstration, and validation, of novel amorphous alloys based bimetallic structures manufactured via thermal spraying technology for storage canisters. LMGH will conduct preliminary testing to prove the high corrosion resistance and mechanical integrity of novel materials. Three different amorphous alloys-based materials will be tested. The amorphous based structure solution developed under this program would enable rapid adoption, wide-scale commercialization by providing improved corrosion resistance under severe environment. These coatings will offer more protection against diversion of nuclear materials, reduction of nuclear materials stocks and transport, reduction in spent fuel handling, and other considerations related to some other fuel cycle options. Additionally, the amorphous coatings are being developed to protect the base metal against corrosion which allows us to identify and pursue applications in several industries (desalination, chemical, oil and gas, solar energy, power, aerospace and defense) that face similar operating challenges.