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Radionuclide Migration From an Underground Radioactive Waste Repository Under the Influence of Tectonic Fault Emergence: the Nizhnekanskiy Massif (Siberia, Russia) Example

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Abstract

A 3D numerical simulation of radionuclide migration from a potential repository of solid radioactive waste is carried out. The federal site is located in the Krasnoyarsk region (Siberia, Russia), at a distance of a few kilometers from the eastern bank of the river Yenisei. The models take into account the actual topography of the area and the heterogeneity of the hydraulic conductivity of the enclosing rocks. The migration of long-lived radionuclides is considered, e.g. 241Am (half-life of 432.6 years). The simulated time intervals range from the waste disposal closure to the fault emergence. The model settings consider different distances between the fault and the repository. The highly permeable near-vertical faults run either from South to North (meridional) or from West to East (latitudinal). The simulation results show that the meridional faults do not exert a substantial influence on contaminant plume movement. By contrast, the latitudinal faults can represent a significant ecological hazard depending on the distance between the repository and the fault. While this study is not an assessment of the safety of the potential repository site, the results point out that further investigations of the stress state of the enclosing rocks are needed to better constrain potential faults and flow directions.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to a specific format of data presentation but are available with descriptions from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by German Research Foundation (DFG, project INFRA NA1528/2–1 and MA4450/5–1, starting the 01st July 2020) and Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR, grant number 20–55-12009, AAAA-A20-120012190168–5, starting the 21st February 2020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy, and Geochemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences, Laboratory of Radiogeology and Radiogeoecology. Staromonetniy, Sidestreet, 35, Moscow, 119017, Russia

    Victor Malkovsky

  2. Geotechnical Institute, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany

    Thomas Nagel & Dominik Kern

  3. Division Research / International, BASE, The Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management, Berlin, Germany

    Fabien Magri

  4. Institute of Geological Sciences, Hydrogeology Group, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Fabien Magri

Authors
  1. Victor Malkovsky
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  2. Thomas Nagel
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  3. Dominik Kern
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  4. Fabien Magri
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Development of mathematical model was performed by Victor Malkovsky and Thomas Nagel. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Victor Malkovsky and Dominik Kern. Computer code was developed by Victor Malkovsky. Modeling results were analyzed by Fabien Magri and Thomas Nagel. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Victor Malkovsky. The corrected and added manuscript was prepared by Victor Malkovsky, Fabien Magri and Thomas Nagel.

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Correspondence to Victor Malkovsky.

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Malkovsky, V., Nagel, T., Kern, D. et al. Radionuclide Migration From an Underground Radioactive Waste Repository Under the Influence of Tectonic Fault Emergence: the Nizhnekanskiy Massif (Siberia, Russia) Example. Environ Model Assess 28, 831–842 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-023-09893-2

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