Analytical model for radionuclide transport in the buffer zone of the deep geological disposal

Abstract:

Radioactive nuclear waste poses long-term threat to human beings and the environment because that remains radioactive after millions of years. Therefore, radioactive wastes must be isolated from the living environment for millennia. A deep geological disposal entails a combination of four parts: vitrified waste form, imaginary zone, buffer zone and excavation-affected zone. The buffer zone constituted by bentonite clay provides a high level of containment of the radioactivity in the wastes over a very long time period. Analytical solution is an efficient tool for the performance evaluation of the buffer zone. This study develops a new analytical model to diffusion equation in cylindrical coordinate for describing radionuclide transport in the buffer zone. The derived solution is compared against the previous solution to illustrate the validity of previous solution which was derived using a diffusion equation in Cartesian coordinates.