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Title: Mass Transfer Model for a Breached Waste Package

Journal Article · · Mass Transfer Model for a Breached Waste Package
OSTI ID:837691

The degradation of waste packages, which are used for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel in the repository, can result in configurations that may increase the probability of criticality. A mass transfer model is developed for a breached waste package to account for the entrainment of insoluble particles. In combination with radionuclide decay, soluble advection, and colloidal transport, a complete mass balance of nuclides in the waste package becomes available. The entrainment equations are derived from dimensionless parameters such as drag coefficient and Reynolds number and based on the assumption that insoluble particles are subjected to buoyant force, gravitational force, and drag force only. Particle size distributions are utilized to calculate entrainment concentration along with geochemistry model abstraction to calculate soluble concentration, and colloid model abstraction to calculate colloid concentration and radionuclide sorption. Results are compared with base case geochemistry model, which only considers soluble advection loss.

Research Organization:
Yucca Mountain Project, Las Vegas, NV (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
US Department of Energy (US)
OSTI ID:
837691
Journal Information:
Mass Transfer Model for a Breached Waste Package, Other Information: PBD: 26 Jul 2004
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English