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Swiss nuclear power and the case for long-term operation
Designed for 40 years but built to last far longer, Switzerland’s nuclear power plants have all entered long-term operation. Yet age alone says little about safety or performance. Through continuous upgrades, strict regulatory oversight, and extensive aging management, the country’s reactors are being prepared for decades of continued operation, in line with international practice.
Aku Itälä, Mika Laitinen, Merja Tanhua-Tyrkkö, Markus Olin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 187 | Number 2 | August 2014 | Pages 169-174
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-79
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The bentonite barrier is an essential part of a safe spent fuel repository in granitic bedrock. One of the most important safety functions of bentonite buffer is to limit groundwater flow so that all mass transport takes place by diffusion. In this work a new mathematical model was developed to define the transport of ions inside the bentonite, where there are bound interlayer water and free extra layer water and sorption capability. This model is tested in a specified geometry and calculated by two numerical platforms—Numerrin and COMSOL Multiphysics—and compared to the original TOUGHREACT model. The model comparison was not a straightforward task because of different approaches in the model setup. Therefore, all the equations are written down, and parameterization is done to create model descriptions near each other. The developed model adapts easily, and there are many new ideas to be tested in bridging the gap between performance assessment and real systems.