Hydrogeological Modeling of Radionuclide Transport in Heterogeneous Low-Permeability Media: A Comparison Between Boom Clay and Ieper Clay

Abstract

Deep low-permeability clay layers are considered as possible suitable environments for disposal of high-level radioactive waste. In Belgium, the Boom Clay is the reference host formation and the Ieper Clay an alternative host formation for research and safety and feasibility assessment of deep disposal of nuclear waste. In this study, two hydrogeological models are built to calculate the radionuclide fluxes that would migrate from a potential repository through these two clay formations. Transport parameters’ heterogeneity is incorporated in the models using stochastic sequential simulation of hydraulic conductivity, diffusion coefficient and diffusion accessible porosity, using primary information and several types of secondary information, i.e. resistivity, gamma ray and grain size. The calculated radionuclide fluxes in the two clay formations are compared. Results show that in the Ieper Clay larger differences between the fluxes through the lower and the upper clay boundary occur than in the Boom Clay, larger total output radionuclide amounts are calculated than in the Boom Clay, and a larger effect of parameter heterogeneity on the calculated fluxes is observed, compared to the Boom Clay.