Castor Oil Polyurethane as a Coating Option for Spent Nuclear Fuel Disposal Containment

Abstract

Castor oil polyurethane (COPU) coatings are being proposed as an additional barrier in the design of the copper containers to store spent nuclear fuel in Canada. The present work investigates the variation in the physico-mechanical properties of two COPUs, based on an aliphatic and aromatic diisocyanate, as a function of ionizing radiation dose and dose rate. The changes in physico-mechanical properties have shown that radiation, regardless of dose rate and isocyanate structure, increases the values of the modulus and the ultimate tensile strength when compared with those of the unirradiated samples, with aromatic based polyurethanes being more susceptible to variation than aliphatic based ones.