Summary
The distribution and possible mobilisation of natural radionuclides in the neighbourhood of a water-bearing fracture in rocks may provide valuable information for the understanding of transport mechansims thought to determine the long term behaviour of a radioactive waste repository.
A one-dimensional diffusion transport model of a three member decay chain including sorption (linear adsorption isotherm) is presented. The rock adjacent to a water-bearing fissure has been modelled as a porous, homogeneous, isotropic and infinite medium. A further assumption is that the bulk rock phase does not act as a radionuclide source and, hence, does not contain any minerals or/and impurities of the radionuclides of interest. From the isotopic concentrations in the water of the fracture, assumed to be in a steady state, boundary conditions are extracted. Initial conditions are specified, e.g. at the time when the fissure opened. We present analytical expressions and discuss diffusion from rock to fissure for the 238U - series members. We show results for two representative environments with respect to sorption (reducing, oxidising).
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References
The literature on natural analogues is plentiful. See e.g. “Natural analogue working group; Second Meeting, Interlaken (CH), June 17–19, 1986” ed. B. Come and N. Chapman. To be published as CEC Report No. EUR 10671.
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NAGRA “Hydrogeologiscb.es Untersuchungsprogramm Nordschweiz, Wasserun-tersuchungen”. For 234U/238U activity ratios in water.
NAGRA NTB 85–06 Sondierbohrung Boettstein / Ergebnisse der Isotopenun-tersuchungen; W. Balderer, H. Loosli, Physikalisches Institut der Uni-versitaet Bern; Januar 1985. For 230Th/234U activity ratios in water NAGRA NTB 85–06 Sondierbohrung Boettstein / Ergebnisse der Isotopenun-tersuchungen; W. Balderer, H. Loosli, Physikalisches Institut der Uni-versitaet Bern; Januar 1985. For 230Th/234U activity ratios in water.
F. Herzog; “Modelling isotope distributions in bore cores”, EIR internal report, TM-45-86-30, Wuerenlingen, 1986.
I.G. McKinley, J. Hadermann; “Radionuclide Sorption Database for Swiss Safety Assessment” EIR-Bericht Nr. 550, 1984.
A.B. Mackenzie, R.D. Scott; “ Analysis of Granites for natural analogue studies. Final report to NAGRA/KBS, 1986. P.J. Hocker, A.B. Mackenzie, R.D. Scott, I.M. Ridgway, I.G. McKinley, J.M. West; “A study of natural and long-term (103-104yr) elemental migration in saturated clays and sediments”. Part III, BGS Report FLPU 85–9. 1985.
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© 1987 ECSC, EEC, EAEC, Brussels and Luxembourg
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Herzog, F. (1987). Modelling Isotope Distributions in Borecores. In: Côme, B., Chapman, N.A. (eds) Natural Analogues in Radioactive Waste Disposal. Radioactive Waste Management Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3465-8_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3465-8_22
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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