• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.331-338
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• 2021

Extensive studies have been conducted on thermal conductivity of bentonite buffer materials, as it affects the safety performance of barriers engineered to contain high-level radioactive waste. Bentonite is composed of several minerals, and studies have shown that the difference in the thermal conductivity of bentonites is due to the variation in their mineral composition. However, the specific reasons contributing to the difference, especially with regard to the thermal conductivity of bentonites with similar mineral composition, have not been elucidated. Therefore, in this study, bentonites with significantly different thermal conductivities, but of similar mineral compositions, are investigated. Most bentonites contain more than 60% of montmorillonite. Therefore, it is believed that the exchangeable cations of montmorillonite could affect the thermal conductivity of bentonites. The effect of bentonite type was comparatively analyzed and was verified through the effective medium model for thermal conductivity. Our results show that Ca-type bentonites have a higher thermal conductivity than Na-type bentonites.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.533-545
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• 2023

In this study, an investigation was conducted on the features, events, and processes (FEP) that could impact the long-term safety of the natural barriers constituting high-level radioactive waste geological repositories. The FEP list was developed utilizing the IFEP list 3.0 provided by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) as foundational data, supplemented by geological investigations and research findings from leading countries in this field. A total of 49 FEPs related to the performance of the natural barrier were identified. For each FEP, detailed definitions, classifications, impacts on long-term safety, significance in domestic conditions, and feasibility of quantification were provided. Moreover, based on the compiled FEP list, three scenarios that could affect the long-term safety of the disposal facility were developed. Geological factors affecting the performance of the natural barrier in each scenario were selected and their relationships were visualized. The constructed FEP list and the visualization of interrelated factors in various scenarios are anticipated to provide essential information for selecting and organizing factors that must be considered in the development of mathematical models for quantitatively evaluating the long-term safety of deep geological repositories. In addition, these findings could be effectively utilized in establishing criteria related to the key performance of natural barriers for the confirmation of repository sites.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.253-262
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• 2004

Construction of tunnels in a deep crystalline host rock for a potential High-Level Radioactive Waste(HLW) repository inevitably generates an excavation disturbed zone (EDZ). There have been a series of debates on whether a permeability in an EDZ increases or not and what would be the maximum depth of an EDZ. Recent studies show mixed opinions on permeability. However, there has been an international consensus on the thickness of an EDZ; 30 cm for TBM and 1 meter for controlled blast. One of the impacts of an EDZ is on determining the distance between adjacent deposition holes. The void gap by the excavation hinders relaxation of temperature profiles so that the current Korean reference designing distance between holes should be stretched out more to keep the maximum temperature in a buffer region below 100 degrees Celsius. The other impact of an EDZ is on the long-term post closure radiological safety. To estimate the impact, the reference scenario, the well scenario, is chosen. Released nuclides diffuse through a bentonite buffer region experiencing strong sorption and reach a fracture surrounded by a porous medium. Inside a fractured porous region, radionuclides migrate by advection and dispersion with matrix diffusion into a porous medium. Finally, they reach a well assumed to be a source of potable water for local residents. The annual individual dose is assessed on this well scenario to find out the significance of an EDZ. A profound sensitivity study was performed, but all results show that the impact is negligible. Even though the role of an EDZ turns out to be limited on overall safety assessment, still it is worthwhile to study the chemical role of an EDZ, such as a potential source for natural colloids, potential sealing of an open fracture by fine clay particles generated by the process of an EDZ, and alteration of a sorption mechanism by an EDZ in the future.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.89-96
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• 2014

The repository for the disposal of LILW which is generated from nuclear power plants and industries is expected to be completed in 2014. For the disposal of LILW, it is important to secure a disposal facility itself, but it is also very important to establish a reasonable charging system which all shareholders are satisfied with. Korea's disposal fee for LILW is higher than other countries' fee, which is a burden to waste generators as well as the waste management organization. The partial reason for the high disposal fee is put on the high social and construction cost when compared with other countries. However the major reason is put on the excessive borrowing cost that is used for the construction of the LILW disposal facility. In this study, we proposed the way to reduce the excessive borrowing cost for sustainable project managements of LILW disposal by analyzing a cost structure.

• Korean System Dynamics Review
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.105-128
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• 2008

City of Gyeongju's referendum finally offered the long-waited low-level radioactive waste disposal site in November 2005. Gyeongju's positive decision was due to the various economic rewards and incentives the national government promised to the city. 300 billion won for an accepting bonus, the location of the headquarter building of the Korean Hydro and Nuclear Power Co., and the accelerator research center and 3.25 trillion won for supporting regional development program implementation. All of the above will affect the city's infrastructure and the citizens' economic and social lives. Population, land use, economic structure, SOC and quality of life will be affected. Some will be very positive, and some will be negative. This research project will see the future of the city and forecast the demographic, economic, physical and environmental changes of the city via computer simulation's system dynamics technique. This kind of simulation will help City of Gyeongju's what to prepare for the future. The population forecasting of the year 2046 will be 662,424 with the waste disposal site, and 327,274 without the waste disposal site in Gyeongju. The waste disposal site and regional supporting program will increase 184,246 Jobs more with 1,605 agriculture and fishery, 5,369 manufacturing shops and 27,577 shops. The population increase will bring 96,726 more houses constructed in the city. Land use will also be affected. More land will be developed. And road, water plant and waste water plant will be expanded as much. The city's financial structure will be expanded, due to the increased revenues from the waste disposal site, and property tax revenues from the middle-class employees of the company, and the high-powered scientists and technologists from the accelerator research center. All in all, the future of the city will be brighter after operating the nuclear waste disposal site inside the city.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.45-59
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• 2023

The transport calculation for a wide variety of radionuclides contained in high-level radioactive waste, especially spent nuclear fuel, is computationally difficult, and input data collection for this also take a considerable amount of time. Accordingly, considering limited resources, it is possible to reduce the calculation time while minimizing impact on accuracy by including only radionuclides important to calculation result through applying some criteria among potential radiation source terms that may release into environment. In this paper, therefore, we reviewed and analyzed the screening process performed to select radionuclides to be considered in the safety assessment for the KBS-3 type repository in Sweden and Finland. In both countries, it was confirmed that a list of radionuclides was selected by comprehensively considering screening criteria such as radioactivity inventory, half-life, radiotoxicity, risk quotient, and transport properties, and etc. A comparison of radionuclides included in the radiological safety assessment in both countries suggests that most of nuclides are considered in common, and a few nuclides considered only in one country are due to differences in decay chain treatment or spent fuel types. As of now, since most of information on the disposal facility in Korea has not been determined, it is necessary to comprehensively model release and transport of all radionuclides considered in Sweden and Finland when performing the radiological safety assessment. Based on these results, we derived the screening concept of selecting a list of radionuclides to be considered in the radiological safety assessment for the domestic KBS-3 type geological disposal facility, and this result is expected to be used as technical basis for confirming conformity with the safety objective. In a more detailed evaluation reflecting domestic characteristics in the future, it would be desirable to consider only radionuclides selected in accordance with the screening procedure. However, further research should be conducted to determine the quantitative limit for each criteria.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.323-334
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• 2023

The vast volumes of data that are generated during site characterization and associated research for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste require effective data management to properly chronicle and archive this information. The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company, SKB, established the SICADA database for site selection, evaluation, analysis, and modeling. The German Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal, BGE, established ArbeitsDB, a database and document management system, and the ELO data system to manage data collected according to the Repository Site Selection Act. The U.K. Nuclear Waste Services established the Data Management System to manage any research and survey data pertaining to nuclear waste storage and disposal. The U.S. Department of Energy and Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management established the Technical Data Management System for data management and subsequent licensing procedures during site characterization surveys. The presented cases undertaken by these national agencies highlight the importance of data quality management and the scalability of data utilization to ensure effective data management. Korea should also pursue the establishment of both a data management concept for radioactive waste disposal that considers data quality management and scalability from a long-term perspective and an associated data management system.

• Explosives and Blasting
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.31-54
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• 2017

In the countries operating nuclear reactors, the development of high-level radioactive waste(HLW) disposal technique is considered as an urgent and important issue for sustainable utilization of nuclear energy. In Korea, in which a low and intermediate radioactive waste repository is already operating, the construction of an underground research laboratory for in situ validation studies became a matter of interest with increasing concerns on the management of HLW. In order to construct and to operate an underground HLW repository safely in deep underground, the stability of rock mass should be guaranteed. As an important factor on rock stability, excavation damaged zone (EDZ) has been studied in many underground research laboratories in foreign countries. For accurate evaluation of the characteristics and effects of EDZ under disposal condition, it is required to use reliable investigation method based on the analysis of previous studies in similar conditions. In this study, status of foreign underground research laboratories in other countries, approaches for investigation the characteristics, size, and effect of EDZ, and major findings from the researches were surveyed and reported. This will help the accomplishment of domestic researches for developing HLW management techniques in underground research laboratory.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.470-473
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• 2005

Spent nuclear fuels are regarded as a high level radioactive waste and they will be disposed in a deep geological repository. To maintain the safety of the repository for hundreds of thousands of years, the spent fuels are encapsulated in a disposal canister and the canister containing spent fuels should have the structural integrity and the corrosion resistance below the several hundreds meters from the ground surface. In this study, the concept of the spent fuel encapsulation process and the process equipment fur deep geological disposal were established. To do this, the design requirements, such as the functions and the spent fuel accumulations, were reviewed. Also, the design principles and the bases were established. Based on the requirements and the bases, the encapsulation process and the equipment from spent fuel receiving process to transferring canister into the underground repository including hot cell processes was established. The established concept of the spent fuel encapsulation process and the process equipment will be improved continuously with the future studies. And this concept can be effectively used in implementing the reference repository system of our own case.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.189-199
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• 2010

In a high-level waste (HLW) repository, heat is generated by the radioactive decay of the waste. This can affect the safety of the repository because the surrounding environment can be changed by the heat transfer through the rock. Thus, it is important to determine the heat transfer coefficient of the atmosphere in the underground repository. In this study, the heat transfer coefficient was estimated by measuring the indoor environmental factors in the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute Underground Research Tunnel (KURT) under forced convection. For the experiment, a heater of 5 kw capacity, 2 meters long, was inserted through the tunnel wall in the heating section of KURT in order to heat up the inside of the rock to $90^{\circ}C$, and fresh air was provided by an air supply fan connected to the outside of the tunnel. The results showed that the average air velocity in the heating section after the provision of the air from outside of the tunnel was 0.81 m/s with the Reynolds number of 310,000~340,000. The seasonal heat transfer coefficient in the heating section under forced convection was $7.68\;W/m^2{\cdot}K$ in the summer and $7.24\;W/m^2{\cdot}K$ in the winter.