Crystalline Disposal R&D at LBNL: FY20 Progress Report

Technical Report · Mon Jul 20 00:00:00 EDT 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1642697· OSTI ID:1642697

Guglielmi, Yves ^[1]; Chang, Chun ^[1]; Cook, Paul ^[1]; Dobson, Patrick ^[1]; Soom, Florian ^[1]; Nakagawa, Seiji ^[1]; Niemi, Auli ^[2]; Juhlin, Chris ^[2]; Lorenz, Henning ^[2]; Rosberg, Jan-Erik ^[3]; Dessirier, Benoit ^[4]; Tsang, Chinfu ^[5]; Tatomir, Alexandru ^[2]; Basirat, Farzad ^[2]; Lundberg, Emil ^[2]; Almqvist, Bjarne ^[2]; Borglin, Sharon ^[1]; Doughty, Christine ^[1]; Zheng, Lian ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
2. Uppsala Univ. (Sweden)
3. Lund Univ. (Sweden)
4. Stockholm Univ. (Sweden)
5. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Uppsala Univ. (Sweden)

Within the Spent Fuel & Waste Science and Technology (SFWST) Program, research work continues further with the goal to better understand long-term performance of disposal systems in three main geologic rock types: clay/shale, salt, and crystalline rock. This report documents LBNL’s research activities related to investigations of crystalline host rock according to the scope of two work packages: SF-20LB01030207 “Crystalline International Collaborations – LBNL,” and SF-20LB01030203 “Crystalline Disposal R&D – LBNL.” These research activities correspond are related to key Features, Events, and Processes (FEPs), ranked in importance from medium to high, as listed in Table 7 of the Used Fuel Disposition Campaign Disposal Research and Development Roadmap (FCR&D-USED-2011-000065 REV0) (Nutt, 2011). Specifically, these research activities address FEP 2.2.01, Excavation Disturbed Zone (EZD). The results of these research activities provide important insights into understanding and predicting flow and transport processes that could occur in low-permeability crystalline rocks, in which fractures might serve as main conduits for fluid flow and radionuclide transport. The evolution of the EDZ during the excavation of the tunnel as well as the evolution of microcrack growth within the EDZ after the emplacement of backfill are critical for predicting the long- term behavior of the EDZ. A number of factors including stress, temperature, water activity, capillary pressure, chemistry, and mineralogy can affect the rock evolution, which require advanced experimental tools to study it.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 1642697
• Report Number(s): LBNL-2001334; ark:/13030/qt5dp1t822; TRN: US2201532
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES