• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.323-338
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• 2007

For the assessment of the performance and safety of a deep underground radioactive repository system, the thermal, hydraulic, mechanical, and chemical behaviors and their coupling should be studied. In order to analyze the THMC coupling behavior more effectively, which requires complex mathematical models and modelling techniques, DECOVALEX international cooperation project was launched in 1992. Since its beginning, four major stages of the project were successfully completed and THMC modelling techniques for various conditions could be developed. In this study, the current status and major achievements from the project were reviewed and possible benefits of the participation to the project were discussed.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.157-178
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• 2013

This study gives a conceptual and basic direction to develop a URL (underground research laboratory) program for establishing the performance and safety of a deep geological disposal system in Korea. The concept of deep geological disposal is one of the preferred methodologies for the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). Advanced countries with radioactive waste disposal have developed their own disposal concepts reasonable to their social and environmental conditions and applied to their commercial projects. Deep geological disposal system is a multi-barrier system generally consisting of an engineered barrier and natural barrier. A disposal facility and its host environment can be relied on a necessary containment and isolation over timescales envisaged as several to tens of thousands of years. A disposal system is not allowed in the commercial stage of the disposal program without a validation and demonstration of the performance and safety of the system. All issues confirming performance and safety of a disposal system include investigation, analysis, assessment, design, construction, operation and closure from planning to closure of the deep geological repository. Advanced countries perform RD&D (research, development & demonstration) programs to validate the performance and safety of a disposal system using a URL facility located at the preferred rock area within their own territories. The results and processes from the URL program contribute to construct technical criteria and guidelines for site selection as well as suitability and safety assessment of the final disposal site. Furthermore, the URL program also plays a decisive role in promoting scientific understanding of the deep geological disposal system for stakeholders, such as the public, regulator, and experts.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.137-164
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• 2018

The guarantee of the performance of the engineered barriers in a geological repository is very important for the long-term safety of disposal as well as the efficient design of the repository. Therefore, the performance of the engineered barriers under repository condition should be demonstrated by in-situ experiments conducted in an underground research laboratory. This article provides a review of the major in-situ experiments that have been carried out over the past several decades at underground research laboratories around the world to validate the performance of engineered barriers of a repository, as well as their results. In-situ experiments to study the coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical behavior of the engineered barrier system used to simulate the post-closure performance of the repository are analyzed as a priority. In addition, in-situ experiments to investigate the performance of the buffer material under a real repository environment have been reviewed. State-of-the art in-situ validations of the buffer-concrete interaction, and the installation of the buffer, backfill and plug, as well as characterization of the near-field rock and the corrosion of the canister materials are, also performed.

• 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.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.17 no.1 s.66
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• pp.32-42
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• 2007

Severe damage can occur around deposition holes due to complex interaction of thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) loading during the long term operation of high level radioactive waste repository. Many candidate sites for repository are located in crystalline rock mass, therefore mechanism of damage follows the form of brittle fracture and failure. This paper briefly introduces major outcomes from 15 years international collaborative project, DECOVALEX, and presents major study results for current ongoing benchmark test study from DECOVALEX-THMC, to evaluate the effect of THM loading to rock mass in excavation damaged zone (EDZ) near deposition holes. Through benchmark test model by simplifying THM loading to boundary loading obtained numerical results are compared, and discrete fracture interaction after up to 1 million years operation is discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.199-207
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• 2004

In order to develop a safe geological disposal concept for the HLW from the nuclear power plants in Korea, it is necessary to evaluate the safety of the disposal concept in an underground research tunnel in the same geological formation as the host rock mass. The design concept of a research tunnel depends on the actual disposal concept, repository geometry, experiments to be carried at the tunnel, and geological conditions. In this study, geological investigation had been carried out to develop the basic design of the small scale underground disposal research tunnel in KAERI.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.spc
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• pp.51-62
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• 2020

In this paper, an approach developed by the Finnish nuclear waste management organization, Posiva, for the construction license of a geological repository was reviewed. Furthermore, a computer program based on the approach was developed. By using the computer program, the lifetime of a copper disposal canister, which was a key engineered barrier of the geological repository, was predicted under the KAERI Underground Research Tunnel (KURT) geologic conditions. The computer program was developed considering the mass transport of corroding agents, such as oxygen and sulfide, through the buffer and backfill. Shortly after the closure of the repository, the corrosion depths of a copper canister due to oxygen in the pores of the buffer and backfill were calculated. Additionally, the long-term corrosion of a copper canister due to sulfide was analyzed in two cases: intact buffer and eroded buffer. Under various conditions of the engineered barrier, the corrosion lifetimes of the copper canister due to sulfide significantly exceeded one million years. Finally, this study shows that it is necessary to carefully characterize the transmissivity of rock and sulfide concentration during site characterization to accurately predict the canister lifetime.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.42-58
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• 2001

In order to protect the environment from waste disposal activities, the prediction of the flux and flow paths of the contaminants from underground facilities should be assessed as accurately as possible. Especially, the prediction of the pathways and travel times of the nuclides from high level radioactive wastes in a deep repository to biosphere is one of the primary tasks for assessing the ultimate safety and performance of the repository. Since the contaminants are mainly transported with groundwater along the discontinuities developed within rock mass, the characteristics of groundwater flow through discontinuities is important for the prediction of contaminant fates as well as safety assessment of a repository. In this study, the actual fracture network could be effectively generated based on in situ data by separating geometric parameter and hydraulic parameter. The calculated anisotropic hydraulic conductivity was applied to a 3D porous medium model to calculate the path flow and travel time of the large studied area with the consideration of the complex topology in the area. Using the model, the pathways and travel times for groundwater were analyzed. From this study, it was concluded that the suggested techniques and procedures for predicting the pathways and travel times of groundwater from underground facilities to biosphere is acceptable and those can be applied to the safety assessment of a repository for radioactive wastes.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.203-212
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• 2009

The prediction of near field behavior around an underground high-level radioactive waste repository is important for the repository design as well as the safety assessment. In this study, a sensitivity analysis for seven parameters consisted of design parameters and material properties was carried out using a three-dimensional finite difference code. From the sensitivity analysis, it was found that the effects of borehole spacing, tunnel spacing, cooling time and rock thermal conductivity were more significant than the other parameters. For getting a statistical distribution of buffer and rock temperatures around the repository, an artificial neural network, backpropagation, was applied. The reliability of the trained neural network was tested with the cases with randomly chosen input parameters. When the parameter variation is within ${\pm}10%$, the prediction from the network was found to be reliable with about a 1% error. It was possible to calculate the temperature distribution for many cases quickly with the trained neural network. The buffer and rock temperatures showed a normal distribution with means of $98^{\circ}C$ and $83.9^{\circ}C$ standard deviations of $3.82^{\circ}C$ and $3.67^{\circ}C$, respectively. Using the neural network, it was also possible to estimate the required change in design parameters for reducing the buffer and rock temperatures for $1^{\circ}C$.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.69-74
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• 1996

High temperature confined compressive tests for thermomechanical failure criteria were carried out for Iksan and Whandeung granites. Authors suggested new polynomial type failure coefficient functions by which conventional Hoek-Brown failure criteria was extended to thermomechanical one. Obtained results are as follow; 1) Failure coefficients, m and s of Hoek and Brown's empirical failure criteria were decreased as temperature increased. 2) Theoretically calculated values by suggested equations and experimented ones by confined compressive test were well coincided.