Deep borehole disposal of high-level radioactive waste.

Technical Report · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/985495· OSTI ID:985495

Stein, Joshua S; Freeze, Geoffrey A; Brady, Patrick Vane; Swift, Peter N; Rechard, Robert Paul; Arnold, Bill Walter; Kanney, Joseph F; Bauer, Stephen J

Preliminary evaluation of deep borehole disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel indicates the potential for excellent long-term safety performance at costs competitive with mined repositories. Significant fluid flow through basement rock is prevented, in part, by low permeabilities, poorly connected transport pathways, and overburden self-sealing. Deep fluids also resist vertical movement because they are density stratified. Thermal hydrologic calculations estimate the thermal pulse from emplaced waste to be small (less than 20 C at 10 meters from the borehole, for less than a few hundred years), and to result in maximum total vertical fluid movement of {approx}100 m. Reducing conditions will sharply limit solubilities of most dose-critical radionuclides at depth, and high ionic strengths of deep fluids will prevent colloidal transport. For the bounding analysis of this report, waste is envisioned to be emplaced as fuel assemblies stacked inside drill casing that are lowered, and emplaced using off-the-shelf oilfield and geothermal drilling techniques, into the lower 1-2 km portion of a vertical borehole {approx}45 cm in diameter and 3-5 km deep, followed by borehole sealing. Deep borehole disposal of radioactive waste in the United States would require modifications to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and to applicable regulatory standards for long-term performance set by the US Environmental Protection Agency (40 CFR part 191) and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (10 CFR part 60). The performance analysis described here is based on the assumption that long-term standards for deep borehole disposal would be identical in the key regards to those prescribed for existing repositories (40 CFR part 197 and 10 CFR part 63).

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 985495
• Report Number(s): SAND2009-4401
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
BASEMENT ROCK
BOREHOLES
Boreholes.
DRILLING
EVALUATION
FLUID FLOW
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
High level radioactive waste disposal-Testing.
MODIFICATIONS
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR WASTE POLICY ACTS
OVERBURDEN
PERFORMANCE
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOISOTOPES
Radioactive waste disposal.
SAFETY
TRANSPORT
US EPA
WASTES
Waste disposal in the ground.