The impacts of pore-scale physical and chemical heterogeneities on the transport of radionuclide-carrying colloids

Technical Report · Tue Apr 24 04:00:00 EDT 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1434478· OSTI ID:1434478

Wu, Ning ^[1]

---

1. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States); Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering Colorado School of Mines

Independent of the methods of nuclear waste disposal, the degradation of packaging materials could lead to mobilization and transport of radionuclides into the geosphere. This process can be significantly accelerated due to the association of radionuclides with the backfill materials or mobile colloids in groundwater. The transport of these colloids is complicated by the inherent coupling of physical and chemical heterogeneities (e.g., pore space geometry, grain size, charge heterogeneity, and surface hydrophobicity) in natural porous media that can exist on the length scale of a few grains. In addition, natural colloids themselves are often heterogeneous in their surface properties (e.g., clay platelets possess opposite charges on the surface and along the rim). Both physical and chemical heterogeneities influence the transport and retention of radionuclides under various groundwater conditions. However, the precise mechanisms how these coupled heterogeneities influence colloidal transport are largely elusive. This knowledge gap is a major source of uncertainty in developing accurate models to represent the transport process and to predict distribution of radionuclides in the geosphere.

• Research Organization: Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: NE0000719
• OSTI ID: 1434478
• Report Number(s): 13-5008; 13-5008
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY