Abstract
In Slovakia, a direct disposal of spent nuclear fuel in a deep geological repository within the country after a certain period of interim storage is a preferred option. This paper briefly describes near field model of radionuclide migration developed in GoldSim simulation code environment and analyses the calculated results on time-dependent release rates of safety relevant radionuclides. Given the fact that GoldSimalso enables to perform probabilistic simulations using the Monte Carlo method, a probabilistic approach was chosen to assess the influence of selected near field parameter uncertainties related to radionuclide migration on the radionuclide release rates from the bentonite buffer to the surrounding host rock. Based on the results, release rates of nuclides which exceed their solubility limits are effectively lowered and many of nuclides are significantly sorbed on the buffer material. It can be seen that the variance of the total release rate in the case of solubility uncertainty is almost two orders of magnitude within a long period of time.
Highlights
Deep geological repository as an alternative for spent fuel management is expected to provide sufficient protection of human health and the environment for at least several thousand years
Due to the lack of research and development works in the field of geological disposal in Slovakia, near field model was developed by using the international research and development achievements (Czech Republic—disposal container and geometry of bentonite buffer, Switzerland—bentonite buffer properties)
Following graphical outputs, which are provided by the simulation tool Gold Sim, illustrate the impact of uncertainties of selected parameters on the release rates of radionuclides from the near field to the surrounding host rock
Summary
Deep geological repository as an alternative for spent fuel management is expected to provide sufficient protection of human health and the environment for at least several thousand years. Spent fuel assemblies discharged from the VVER nuclear reactors in Slovakia are cooled several years in storage basins in the vicinity of the reactor [1]. In Slovakia, the site selection process of the host rock environment suitable for geological disposal is still running but until now there has not been selected the final locality for a geological disposal facility. Due to this fact, the assessments of long-term safety were performed only for a hypothetical geological repository located in the crystalline or sedimentary rocks
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