Mass Transport in Salt Repositories: Steady-State Transport through Interbeds.

摘要

Salt has long been a candidate for geologic disposal of nuclear waste. Because salt is extremely soluble in water, the existence of rock salt in the ground atest to the long-term stability of the salt. Both bedded salt and salt domes have been considered for nuclear waste disposal in the United States and Europe. While the salt is known to be quite pure in salt domes, bedded salt is interlaced with beds of sediments. Traditionally rock salt has not been considered water-conducting, but sediments layers would be classical porous media, capable of conducting water. Therefore there is interest in determining whether interbeds in bedded salt constitute pathway for radionuclide migration. In this report we consider steady-state migration of radionuclides from a single waste cylinder into a single interbed. Two approaches are used. In 1982 Neretnieks proposed an approach for calculating the steady-state transport of oxidants to a copper container. We have adapted that approach for calculating steady-state radionuclide migration away from the waste package, as a first approximation. We have also analyzed the problem of time-dependent radionuclide diffusion from a container through a backfill layer into a fracture, and we used the steady-state solution from that problem for comparison. Section 2 gives a brief summary of the geology of interbeds in bedded salt. Section 3 presents the mass transfer resistances approach of Neretnieks, summarizing the formulation and giving numerical illustrations of the steady-state two-dimensional diffusion analysis. Section 4 gives a brief statement of the steady-state result from a related analysis. Conclusions are stated in Section 5. 13 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs.