We present a new perspective on geological disposal systems for nuclear waste. Geological disposal systems encompass all the processes required for the permanent isolation of highly-radioactive materials from humans and the biosphere. Radioactive mat...
Together with renewable energy sources, nuclear power represents an important contribution to a sustainable energy mix in many countries and has an important impact on sustainable development. Nuclear energy production is also a source of high-level...
The safe disposal of spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste has become a critical bottleneck restricting the sustainable development of nuclear energy, and 3D geological modeling serves as a core technology for repository siting and safety asses...
Geological disposal facilities for radioactive waste pose significant challenges for robust monitoring of environmental conditions within the engineered barriers that surround the waste canister. Temperatures are elevated, due to the presence of heat...
Presently, a criticality safety evaluation methodology for the final geological disposal of Swiss spent nuclear fuel is under development at the Paul Scherrer Institute in collaboration with the Swiss National Technical Competence Centre in the field...
Efficient simulation of geochemical reactions is critical for predicting the long-term chemical evolution of geological disposal repositories for radioactive waste. In large-scale reactive transport simulations, geochemical equilibrium calculations o...
Characterizing flow and transport for earthquake-induced shear canister failure is critical for the performance and safety assessment of radioactive waste geological disposal. The study presents a modeling framework that integrates multiple models to...
Disposal tunnels in geological repositories are ventilated continuously for over 50 years until their closure. Under these conditions, an unsaturated zone of mixed liquid and gas phases forms around the tunnels. Moreover, drying is assumed to progres...
The basic principles of geological risk calculation through probability of success (PoS) are mostly applied to numerical estimation of additional hydrocarbon existence in proven reservoirs or potential hydrocarbon discoveries in selected geological r...
Over the past several decades, the international community has been actively engaged in developing a safe method for isolating spent nuclear fuel, high and intermediate level radioactive wase of different degrees of heat generation in deep geological...
The long-term safety of geological disposal facilities (GDFs) depends in part on the integrity of metallic waste canisters exposed to evolving thermal, geochemical and microbial conditions. Although abiotic corrosion is comparatively well characteris...
12 August 2022
Colloids have a significant influence on the migration of nuclides in claystone, which is an important geological barrier. The sorption of strontium on claystone in the presence of FeOOH colloids was investigated in samples from the Suhongtu site, a...
Deep geological disposal is widely recognized as the most reliable strategy for the long-term isolation of high-level radioactive waste (HLW). In granitic host rocks, fractures in the near-field represent the primary pathways for groundwater flow and...
We present a concise mini overview on the approaches to the disposal of nuclear waste currently used or deployed. The disposal of nuclear waste is the end point of nuclear waste management (NWM) activities and is the emplacement of waste in an approp...
Occasionally, a selected site suitable for landfill construction is severely protested against by locals. This issue can cause the proposed landfill to be relocated to an environmentally sensitive area. The proposed Khon Kaen waste disposal site has...
Groundwater flow and transport are crucial for performance and safety assessment in the radioactive waste geological disposal. This study presents the groundwater flow and advective transport simulations for assessing the performance of a reference r...
The deep borehole disposal (DBD) concept for certain types of radioactive wastes has been discussed for many decades, but has enjoyed limited R&D interest compared to ‘conventional’ geological disposal in an excavated repository at a few hundreds...
The safe disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) is a major issue to ensure environmental protection and the sustainable development of the nuclear energy industry; it is also an equally important issue regarding nuclear safety. Deep-buried ge...
This paper proposed a modified Rock Mass Rating (RMR) system, the RMRHLW system, for evaluating the rock quality of High-level Radioactive Waste (HLW) geological disposal engineering. Some salient factors, including the weakening of groundwater and t...
Due to various historical events, in the Russian Federation, in addition to the radioactive waste storage facilities used in world practice, there are various nuclear and radiation hazardous facilities that require special procedures for monitoring a...
For high-level radioactive waste, the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency is currently developing a 500 m deep geological disposal facility called Cigéo. Carbon steel containers will be used to contain the wastes in the specifi...
In France, it is planned to manage high-level radioactive waste via deep geological disposal. The carbon steel overpacks containing the waste will face corrosion processes specific to the unusual environment of the disposal. To protect these overpack...
The disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in deep stable geological formations is accepted at an international level to be the most promising option for its long-term management. The supercontainer concept is currently being considered as th...
Understanding the excavation-induced deformation and failure behaviors of the URL (underground research laboratory) for the geological disposal of HLW (high-level radioactive waste) before its construction is essential due to its high safety requirem...
The geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste is the final step in the nuclear fuel cycle. It is realized via isolating the high-level radioactive waste in the geological environment with an appropriate system of engineered barriers. Radion...
In facilities for the geological disposal of radioactive waste in coastal areas, the long-term alteration of cementitious materials in engineered barriers is expected to occur due to the ingress of groundwater derived from seawater. Although the reac...
The potential contamination of underground drinking water (UDW) caused by CO2 leakage is a critical decision input for risk assessment and management decision making. This paper presents an overview of the potential alterations to UDW quality caused...
The Beishan area of Gansu, China, is the primary candidate site for the geological disposal of China’s high-level radioactive waste (HLW). To assess the long-term safety of this repository, the evolutionary patterns of groundwater and the prima...
Buffer material has been shown to be effective over the long term for radionuclide diffusion retardation and is used as the final artificial barrier of the multi-barrier system in the high-level waste disposal repository. The method of disposal raise...
As in any other industry, nuclear energy results in the accumulation of some waste, which needs to be managed safely and responsibly due to its radiotoxicity. In the case of highly radioactive waste, geological disposal in stable rock is considered a...
Recent studies reveal that organisms from all three domains of life—Archaea, Bacteria, and even Eukarya—can thrive under energy-poor, dark, and anoxic conditions at large depths in the fractured crystalline continental crust. There is a n...
Bentonite is used as a buffer material in engineered barriers for the geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste. The buffer material will be made of bentonite, a natural clay, mixed with silica sand. The buffer material is affected by decay...
Most safety cases for the deep geological disposal of radioactive waste are reliant on the swelling of bentonite in the engineered barrier system as it saturates with groundwater. Assurance of safety therefore requires effective monitoring of bentoni...
Buffer material (compacted bentonite), one of the engineered barrier elements in the geological disposal of a high-level radioactive waste, develops swelling stress due to groundwater penetration from the surrounding rock mass. Montmorillonite is the...
This research investigates small-scale tectonic activity in the Jiujing region in Beishan, northwest China through the application of persistent scatterer (PS) Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). PS InSAR is an effective monitoring tool...
The study investigated the basic geomechanical and mineralogical evolution of the bentonite barrier under various experimental boundary conditions which replicated the near-field Thermo-Hydro-Chemico (THC) conditions in a repository. The relationship...
Deep geological repositories for nuclear wastes consist of both engineered and natural geologic barriers to isolate the radioactive material from the human environment. Inappropriate repositories of nuclear waste would cause severe contamination to n...
For the long-term safety assessment of direct disposal of spent nuclear fuel in deep geologic repositories, knowledge on the radionuclide release rate from the UO2 matrix is essential. This work provides a conceptual model to explain the results of l...
Groundwater seepage plays a critical role in the long-term safety of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal, yet its characterization remains challenging due to the complexity of fractured rock media. This study introduces the Double-Layered Sei...
The ability of biofilms to form on a range of materials (cementious backfill (Nirex Reference Vault Backfill (NRVB)), graphite, and stainless steel) relevant to potential UK intermediate level radioactive waste (ILW) disposal concepts was investigate...
This paper reviews constitutive models used to predict concrete spalling under elevated temperatures, with emphasis on fire exposure and concrete linings in deep geological repositories for spent fuel and nuclear waste. The review synthesizes (1) how...
The sealing behavior of fracture-filling minerals in the near-field of the deep geological repository (DGR) is critical for the safe disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW). In granite host rocks, natural fractures are often filled with polymi...
Bentonite is used as a buffer material in most high-level radioactive waste (HLW) repository designs. Smectite clay is the main mineral component of bentonite and plays a key role in controlling the buffer’s physical and chemical behaviors. Moreover,...
The disposal of nuclear waste represents a paramount concern for human safety, and the corrosion resistance of containers within the disposal environment stands as a critical factor in ensuring the integrity of such waste containment systems. In this...
Spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste can be disposed in deep horizontal drillholes in sedimentary, metamorphic or igneous rocks. Horizontal drillhole disposal has safety, operational and economic benefits: the repository is deep in the...
The formation of Fe- and Mg-rich smectite and zeolite under alkaline conditions, as secondary minerals after the alkaline alteration of bentonite in repositories for radioactive waste, is of major concern. It is crucial for safety assessments to know...
Neptunium (237Np) is an important radionuclide in the nuclear fuel cycle in areas such as effluent treatment and the geodisposal of radioactive waste. Due to neptunium’s redox sensitivity and its tendency to adsorb strongly to mineral phases, s...
Heat load from high-level radioactive waste (HLW) packages will result in elevated temperatures around the disposal tunnel. Differences in thermal expansion between rock and water will induce the redistribution of stresses. The assessment of the ther...
The disposal of heat-generating radioactive waste in deep underground facilities requires a sparing use of spatial resources on the one side and favorable temperature conditions over the project lifetime on the other side. Under heat-sensitive condit...
In this study, we investigated the morphology, chemical composition and pH measurement performance of MoOx electrodes prepared via thermal oxidation and submitted to hydration in milliQ water. Surface analysis using SEM-EDS and XPS revealed that the...
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