Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Hydrodynamics control for the well field of in-situ leaching of uranium

  • Yongmei Li (School of Resource Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China) ;
  • Chong Zhang (Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy, China National Nuclear Corporation) ;
  • Zhipeng Tang (School of Resource Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China) ;
  • Chunguang Li (School of Resource Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China) ;
  • Zhenzhong Liu (School of Resource Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China) ;
  • Kaixuan Tan (School of Resource Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China) ;
  • Longcheng Liu (Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy, China National Nuclear Corporation)
  • Received : 2024.02.13
  • Accepted : 2024.05.17
  • Published : 2024.10.25
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Abstract

In this study, the groundwater hydrodynamics of two adjacent well sites were simulated under different pumping-injection ratios. The aim is to select an optimal pumping-injection ratio that can ensure the groundwater of the two well sites don't affect each other. In addition, the sulfur isotope composition of groundwater in the two well sites were analyzed to verify the simulated results. The results show that the flow velocity at different points outside the edge drilling hole decreases exponentially with the distance between the point and the edge hole. The streamline gradually extends outside of the borehole with the increase of leaching time. It is found that the optimal pumping-injection ratio is 1.003. In this case, the maximum distance between the moving front and the injection borehole is 28.44 m after leaching for 5 years. This indicates that the groundwater flow fields of the two well sites are well controlled. The significant difference in sulfur isotopes between the two well-sites further proves that the SO42- in the acid mining zone does not affect the groundwater in the zone leached by CO2+O2.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1703123), the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (No. 2023JJ40522) and the Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Hunan Province (No. 22B0430).

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