Typical repository conditions for generic commercial and defense high-level nuclear waste and spent fuel repositories in crystalline rock

Technical Report · Wed Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1984

OSTI ID:6480981

This report summarizes activities to determine conditions for temperature, pressure, fluid, chemical, and radiation environments typical of those that may be expected to exist in commercial and defense high-level nuclear waste and spent fuel repositories in crystalline rock. In the DOE Crystalline Repository Project, the term crystalline rocks are defined as intrusive igneous and high-rank metamorphic rocks rich in silicate minerals with a grain size sufficiently coarse that individual materials can be distinguished with the unaided eye. These conditions were generated by the Reference Repository Conditions Interface Working Group (RRC-IWG), an ad hoc IWG established by the National Terminal Storage (NWTS) Program's Isolation Interface Control Board. The repository conditions are based on the standard room-and-pillar mined repository concept with waste emplaced in vertical holes drilled in the room floor. Some important results obtained are given below for the selected local areal thermal loadings of 20, 25, and 13.5 W/m/sup 2/ for spent fuel (SF), commercial high-level waste (CHLW), and defense high-level waste (DHLW), respectively. In all cases, the results below are given in order for SF, CHLW, and DHLW. Some thermal results are: maximum waste temperature - 190, 225, and 120/sup 0/C; maximum rock temperature - 150, 165, and 105/sup 0/C. The length of time for significant thermal exposure is greater for SF than the other wastes. Vapor phase pressures are not expected to rise significantly above atmospheric until the repository is sealed. After sealing, the water pressure inside the sealed excavations will gradually increase to the local hydrostatic head. A generic crystalline rock ground-water composition and expected gamma radiation dose rates are also provided in the report. 11 references, 10 figures, 6 tables.

• Research Organization: Battelle Memorial Inst., Columbus, OH (USA). Office of Crystalline Repository Development
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830; AC02-83CH10139
• OSTI ID: 6480981
• Report Number(s): BMI/OCRD-12; ON: DE85001949
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052002* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Disposal & Storage
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
AFTER-HEAT
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
DATA
DATA COMPILATION
DOSE RATES
DOSES
ENERGY SOURCES
ENERGY TRANSFER
FUELS
GRANITES
GROUND WATER
HEAT TRANSFER
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
IGNEOUS ROCKS
INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
METAMORPHIC ROCKS
MINERALOGY
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUMERICAL DATA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLUTONIC ROCKS
PRESSURE EFFECTS
RADIATION DOSES
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTOR MATERIALS
ROCKS
SPECIFICATIONS
SPENT FUELS
TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TIME DEPENDENCE
VAPOR PRESSURE
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
WATER