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Assessment of the Safe Isolation of Solid Radwaste in Subsurface Repositories

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A calculation of the removal of radionuclides by groundwaters from a subsurface repository of solid low-level waste was performed. A two-dimensional model of the groundwater flow and advective-dispersive transport of radionuclides in a vertical section of a subsurface aquifer, along which radionuclide-contaminated groundwater moves from the repository to an open body of water, was studied. Data from many years of experimentation on the leaching of cemented low-level waste were used in the calculations. It was shown that the rocks of the aquifer effectively retain medium half-life radionuclides (60Co, 137Cs, 90Sr). An engineered barrier – a 0.7 m thick layer of consolidated bentonite clay – can secure the safety of a repository for long-lived transuranium radionuclides (235U, 239Pu) for 20000 years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy, and Geochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences (IGEM RAN), Moscow, Russia

    V. I. Mal’kovskii & S. V. Yudintsev

  2. National University of Science and Technology MISiS, Moscow, Russia

    V. S. Gupalo

Authors
  1. V. I. Mal’kovskii
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  2. S. V. Yudintsev
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  3. V. S. Gupalo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to V. I. Mal’kovskii.

Additional information

Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 126, No. 2, pp, 102–108, February, 2019.

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Mal’kovskii, V.I., Yudintsev, S.V. & Gupalo, V.S. Assessment of the Safe Isolation of Solid Radwaste in Subsurface Repositories. At Energy 126, 116–123 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-019-00524-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-019-00524-2

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