Advances in Geologic Disposal System Modeling and Application to Crystalline Rock

Technical Report · Thu Sep 22 00:00:00 EDT 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1333708· OSTI ID:1333708

Mariner, Paul E. ^[1]; Stein, Emily R. ^[1]; Frederick, Jennifer M. ^[1]; Sevougian, S. David ^[1]; Hammond, Glenn Edward ^[1]; Fascitelli, D. G. ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

The Used Fuel Disposition Campaign (UFDC) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Office of Fuel Cycle Technology (OFCT) is conducting research and development (R&D) on geologic disposal of used nuclear fuel (UNF) and high-level nuclear waste (HLW). Two of the high priorities for UFDC disposal R&D are design concept development and disposal system modeling (DOE 2011). These priorities are directly addressed in the UFDC Generic Disposal Systems Analysis (GDSA) work package, which is charged with developing a disposal system modeling and analysis capability for evaluating disposal system performance for nuclear waste in geologic media (e.g., salt, granite, clay, and deep borehole disposal). This report describes specific GDSA activities in fiscal year 2016 (FY 2016) toward the development of the enhanced disposal system modeling and analysis capability for geologic disposal of nuclear waste. The GDSA framework employs the PFLOTRAN thermal-hydrologic-chemical multi-physics code and the Dakota uncertainty sampling and propagation code. Each code is designed for massively-parallel processing in a high-performance computing (HPC) environment. Multi-physics representations in PFLOTRAN are used to simulate various coupled processes including heat flow, fluid flow, waste dissolution, radionuclide release, radionuclide decay and ingrowth, precipitation and dissolution of secondary phases, and radionuclide transport through engineered barriers and natural geologic barriers to the biosphere. Dakota is used to generate sets of representative realizations and to analyze parameter sensitivity.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sandia National Laboratories, Las Vegas, NV
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Fuel Cycle Technologies (NE-5). Used Fuel Disposition Campaign (UFDC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1333708
• Report Number(s): SAND2016-9610R; 647761
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
58 GEOSCIENCES
BOREHOLES
CLAYS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DAUGHTER PRODUCTS
DESIGN
DISSOLUTION
FLUID FLOW
GRANITES
HEAT FLUX
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
IGNEOUS ROCKS
METAMORPHIC ROCKS
NUCLEAR DECAY
PARALLEL PROCESSING
PERFORMANCE
PRECIPITATION
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
SALT DEPOSITS
SAMPLING
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
SPENT FUELS
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL