• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.104-126
• /
• 2024

Buffer and backfill play an essential role in isolating high-level radioactive waste and retard the migration of leaked radionuclides in deep geological disposal system. A bentonite mixture, which exhibits a swelling property, is considered for buffer and backfill materials, and excessive groundwater inflow from surrounding rock mass may affect stability and efficiency of their role as an engineered barrier. Therefore, stringent quality control as well as in-situ installation management and inflow water constrol for buffer and backfill are required to ensure the safety of deep disposal facilities. In this study, we analyzed the design requirements of buffer and backfill by examining various laboratory tests and a field study of the Steel Tunnel Test at the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory in Sweden. We introduced how to control the quality of buffer and backfill construction in-field, and also presented how to handle excessive groundwater inflow into disposal caverns, validating the groundwater retention capacity of bentonite pellets and the effectiveness of geotexile use.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.83-100
• /
• 1999

As disposal packaging concepts of spent fuels generated from the domestic NPP, two types, one is to package PWR and CANDU spent fuels in different containers and the other is to package them together, were proposed. The configuration of the containers and the layout of underground repository, such as the container spacing and the deposition tunnel spacing, were developed. The layout of underground repository satisfies the thermal constraint of the bentonite buffer surrounding disposal container, which should be lower than $100^{\circ}C$ in order to keep the physical and chemical properties of bentonite From the spent fuel packaging concepts and container emplacement methods, seven options were developed. With a typical pair-wise comparison methods, AHP, the most promising disposal concept was selected based on the technology Point of view.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
• /
• v.40 no.2
• /
• pp.29-40
• /
• 2024

This study aimed to evaluate the swelling behavior characteristics of KJ-II buffer blocks by performing numerical analysis of swelling pressure measurement experiments using the nonlinear elasticity model of COMSOL Multiphysics. The analysis was conducted under boundary conditions that included isotropic constraints and water injection pressure, mirroring the experimental settings. Validation of the numerical model was achieved by comparing its outputs with experimental results. The validated model was then used to simulate swelling deformations under unconfined conditions and to analyze swelling pressure as influenced by dry density and the geometric shape of the buffer material. The results accurately represented the swelling deformation observed during the saturation process and demonstrated that swelling pressure increases with higher dry density. Moreover, simulations concerning the geometric shape of the buffer material indicated a markedly faster rate of pressure increase in U-shaped samples compared to cylindrical ones. Analysis suggested that stress manifested preemptively near the internal edges of U-shaped samples during saturation. To enhance the simulation's fidelity to actual buffer material behavior, further refinement of the analysis model using a nonlinear elasticity model is recommended.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.449-459
• /
• 2023

The design and development of underground nuclear waste repositories should cover the performance evaluation of the different components such as the construction materials because the long term stability will depend on their response to the surrounding conditions. In South Korea, Gyeonju bentonite has been proposed as a candidate to be used as buffer and backfilling material, especially in the form of blocks to speed up the construction process. In this study, various cylindrical samples were prepared with different dry density and water content, and their physical and mechanical properties were analyzed and correlated with X-ray CT observations. The main objective was to characterize the samples and establish correlations for non-destructive estimation of physical and mechanical properties through the utilization of X-ray CT images. The results showed that the Uniaxial Compression Strength and the P-wave velocity have an increasing relationship with the dry density. Also, a higher water content increased the values of the measure parameters, especially for the P-wave velocity. The X-ray CT analysis indicated a clear relation between the mean CT value and the dry density, Uniaxial Compression Strength, and P-wave velocity. The effect of the higher water content was also captured by the mean CT value. Also, the relationship between the mean CT value and the dry density was used to plot CT dry densities using CT images only. Moreover, the histograms also provided information about the samples heterogeneity through the histograms' full width at half maximum values. Finally, the particle size and heterogeneity were also analyzed using the Madogram function. This function identified small particles in uniform samples and large particles in some samples as a result of poor mixing during preparation. Also, the μ_max value correlated with the heterogeneity, and higher values represented samples with larger ranges of CT values or particle densities. These image-based tools have been shown to be useful on the non-destructive characterization of bentonite samples, and the establishment of correlations to obtain physical and mechanical parameters solely from CT images.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.56 no.3
• /
• pp.941-948
• /
• 2024

The effects of radiation on the corrosion of canister materials were investigated for the reliable disposal of high-level radioactive waste. The test specimens were gamma-irradiated at a very low dose rate of approximately 0.1 Gy/h for six and twelve months. The copper and cast iron species were less corroded when irradiated. It is hypothesized that gamma rays suppress the formation of lower-enthalpy species like metal oxides and activate reductive reactions. In contrast, it was difficult to evaluate the effect of radiation on the corrosion of titanium and stainless steel.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.515-523
• /
• 2001

In this paper results of a linear structural analysis for design and dimensioning of disposal containers for spent pressurized water reactor nuclear fuel and spent Canadian deuterium and uranium reactor nuclear fuel are presented. The container structure studied here is a solid structure with a cast insert and a corrosion resistant outer shell, which is designed for the spent nuclear fuel disposal in a deep repository. An evenly distributed load of hydrostatic pressure from the groundwater and large swelling pressure from the bentonite buffer are applied on the container. Hence, the container must be designed to endure these large pressure loads. In this study, the array type of inner baskets and thicknesses of outer shell and lid/bottom are attempted to be determined through a linear static structural analysis.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.157-164
• /
• 2007

The prediction of the temperature distribution change of the spent nuclear fuel disposal canister and its surrounding structures (bentonite buffer, granitic rock etc.) due to the spent fuel heat is very important for the design of the 500m deep granitic repository for the spent nuclear fuel disposal canister (about 10,000 years long) deposition. In this study, the temperature distribution change of the composite structure which comprises the canister, the bentonite buffer, the deposition tunnel due to the spent fuel heat is computed using the numerical analysis method. Specially, the temperature distribution change of the composite structure is analysed as the deposition time elapses up to m years. The analysis result shows that the temperature of each part of the repository increases slowly in different way but the latest part temperature increases slowly up to 150 years and thereafter decreases slowly.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.38-51
• /
• 2019

Barcelona Basic Model (BBM) can describe not only swelling owing to decrease in effective stress, but also wetting-induced swelling due to decrease in suction. And the BBM can also consider increase in cohesion and apparent preconsolidation stress with suction, and decrease in the apparent preconsolidation stress with temperature. Therefore, the BBM is widely used all over the world to predict and to analyze coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behavior of bentonite which is considered as buffer materials at the engineered barrier system in the high-level radioactive waste disposal system. However, the BBM is not well known in Korea, so this paper introduce the BBM to Korean rock engineers and geotechnical engineers. In this study, Modified Cam Clay (MCC) model is introduced before all, because the BBM was first developed as an extension of the MCC model to unsaturated soil conditions. Then, the thermo-elasto-plastic version of the BBM is described in detail.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.267-282
• /
• 2024

This study aims to develop a wireless communication system for long-term monitoring of high-level radioactive waste disposal facilities. Conventional wired sensors can lead to a deterioration in buffer quality and management difficulties due to the use of cables for power supply and data transmission. This study proposes the adoption of a wireless communication system and compares the received signal strengths within bentonite using modules such as WiFi, ZigBee, and LoRa. Increases in dry density of bentonite and distance between transceivers led to reduced received signal strength. Additionally, using the low-frequency band exhibited less signal attenuation. Based on these findings, a conceptual design for a wireless network-based THM integrated sensor system was proposed. Results of this study can be used as foundational data for long-term monitoring of disposal facility.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2015

Deep geological disposal is the preferred storage method for high-level radioactive waste, because it ensures stable long-term storage with minimal potential for human disruption. Because of the risk of groundwater contamination, a buffer of steel and bentonite layers has been proposed to prevent the leaching of radionuclides into groundwater. Quartz is one of the most common minerals in earth's crust. To understand how deformation and dissolution phenomena affect waste disposal, here we study quartz samples at pressure, temperature, and pH conditions typical of deep geological disposal sites. We perform a dissolution experiment for single quartz crystals under different pressure and temperature conditions. Solution samples are collected and the dissolution rate is calculated by analyzing Si concentrations in a solution excited by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). After completing the dissolution experiment, deformation of the quartz sample surfaces is investigated with a confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM). An empirical formula is introduced that describes the relationship between dissolution rate, pressure, and temperature. These results suggest that bentonite layers in engineering barrier systems may be vulnerable to thermal deformation, even when exposed to higher temperatures on relatively short timescales.