Drift emplaced waste package thermal response
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- B and W Fuel Co., Lynchburg, VA (United States)
Thermal calculations of the effects of radioactive waste decay heat on the I repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada have been conducted by the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project (YMP) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in conjunction with the B&W Fuel Company. For a number of waste package spacings, these 3D transient calculations use the TOPAZ3D code to predict drift wall temperatures to 10,000 years following emplacement. Systematic tcniperature variation occurs as a function of fuel age at emplacement and Areal Mass Loading (AML) during the first few centuries after emplacement. After about 1000 years, emplacement age is not a strong driver on rock temperature; AML has a larger impact. High AMLs occur when large waste packages are emplaced end-tocnd in drifts. Drift emplacement of equivalent packages results in lower rock teniperatures than borehole emplacement. For an emplacement scheme with 50% of the drift length occupied by packages, an AML of 138 MTU/acre is about three times higher than the Site Characterization Plan-Conceptual Design (SCP-CD) value. With this higher AML (requiring only 1/3 of the SCP-CD repository footprint), peak drift wall temperatures do not exceed 160*C, but rock temperatures excetd the boiling point of water for about 3000 years. These TOPAZ3D results Iiive been compared with reasonable agreement with two other computer codes.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 138869
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC--112435; ON: DE93008020
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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