Nuclear Engineering and Technology

  • 제56권8호
  • /
  • Pages.3242-3254
  • /
  • 2024
  • /
  • 1738-5733(pISSN)
  • /
  • 2234-358X(eISSN)
한국원자력학회 (Korean Nuclear Society)
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Multiscale modeling of smectite illitization in bentonite buffer of engineered barrier system

  • Xinwei Xiong (Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Houston ) ;
  • Jiahui You (Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Houston ) ;
  • Kyung Jae Lee (Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Houston ) ;
  • Jin-Seop Kim (Disposal Performance Demonstration Research Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)
  • 투고 : 2023.10.30
  • 심사 : 2024.03.18
  • 발행 : 2024.08.25
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초록

With the increasing usage of nuclear energy, how to properly dispose nuclear waste becomes a critical issue. In this study, a multiscale modeling approach combining the experimental findings is presented to address the illitization process, its impact on transport properties, and system behavior of bentonite buffer in engineered barrier systems (EBS). Through the pore-scale modeling, reactive transport properties such as illite generation rate and effective diffusion coefficient of potassium ion as a function of porosity and temperature are quantified by employing the findings of hydrothermal reaction experiments of Bentonil-WRK. The capability of pore-scale modeling has been developed based on the Darcy-Brinkmann-Stokes equation, involving the processes of smectite illitization and clay swelling. Obtained reactive transport properties are utilized as input parameters for the macroscale modeling to predict the long-term behavior of bentonite buffer in EBS. As such, this study involves the whole workflow of quantifying the reaction parameters of smectite illitization through the hydrothermal reaction experiments, and numerically modeling the reactive transport process of smectite illitization in bentonite buffer of EBS from pore-scale to macroscale. The presented multiscale modeling findings are expected to provide reliable solution for safe nuclear waste disposal with EBS.

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과제정보

This work was supported by the Institute for Korea Spent Nuclear Fuel (iKSNF) and National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (Ministry of Science and ICT, MSIT) (2021M2E1A1085193).

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