Nature of the near-field environment in a deep geological repository and the implications for the corrosion behaviour of the container

The corrosion behaviour of nuclear fuel waste containers depends on the near-field environmental conditions, which may differ significantly from those in the host rock, especially during the early thermal-saturation transient phase. Although it is widely accepted that, in broad terms, the repository evolves from initially warm and oxidising to cool and anoxic in the long term, it is important to understand the detailed nature of the near-field...