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Deep Isolation validates borehole disposal for recycled SNF waste
Waste disposal technology company Deep Isolation Nuclear has claimed that results of a study it conducted with reactor developer Oklo demonstrate that deep borehole disposal could be an option for disposing of high-level radioactive waste generated from the recycling of advanced reactor fuel.
Ivars Neretnieks
Nuclear Technology | Volume 72 | Number 2 | February 1986 | Pages 194-200
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT86-A33741
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In a final repository for spent nuclear fuel, the waste canister may be surrounded by some backfill. For low-permeability backfills, the transport of dissolved species such as corrosive agents for radionuclides leached after canister penetration is faster by diffusion than by flow. In fissured rock the migrating species will have a large cross-section area for transport while in the bulk of the backfill, but a very small area for transport at the mouth of the fissure. A somewhat idealized physical model has been used as a basis for a mathematical model that has been solved analytically. It shows the influence of fissure widths, backfill thickness, and distance between fissures. Some calculations are performed using some geometrical configurations of interest. They show that the influence of fissure width on the transport rate is small.