Transport of weapons-grade plutonium and boron through fractured geologic media

Journal Article · Sat Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1997 · Nuclear Technology

OSTI ID:449622

Ahn, J ^[1]

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1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Nuclear Engineering

Redistribution of vitrified weapons-grade plutonium placed in the proposed Yucca Mountain repository is investigated based on the pure-colloid transport model for plutonium and the pure-solute transport model for plutonium and the pure-solute transport model for plutonium, uranium, and boron. In the pure-colloid model, colloids carrying plutonium are assumed to settle out of groundwater in the fractures by flocculation. In the pure-solute model, {sup 239}Pu, {sup 235}U, and boron are transported through fractures by advection and diffuse into the rock matrix with sorption retardation. Both models show that {sup 239}Pu stays in the vicinity of the repository and decays there to {sup 235}U. All the {sup 239}Pu that originally exists in the repository reaches the bottom end of 200-m fractures as {sup 235}U. Boron spreads in the geologic medium during the glass leaching period and quickly disappears after the end of the leach time. Concentrations of {sup 239}Pu and {sup 235}U are found to be too small for autocatalytic criticality.

• OSTI ID: 449622
• Journal Information: Nuclear Technology, Journal Name: Nuclear Technology Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 117; ISSN 0029-5450; ISSN NUTYBB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
BORON
FRACTURED RESERVOIRS
PLUTONIUM 239
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
TUFF
URANIUM 235
VITRIFICATION
WASTE FORMS