Abstract
The disposal of nuclear waste involves thermo-mechanical reaction of the host rock to the buried waste – a distributed heat source that decays. To solve the problem within the half infinite space confined by the ground surface, an image method is developed. Specifically, a negative image of the heat source with the ground surface as the mirror, i.e. a mirrored heat sink is utilized so that the normal traction generated by the heat source can be counterbalanced, and a numerical scheme of integration of the classical Cerruti solution is developed to include the effect of tangential shear traction on the ground surface caused by the heat sources and their mirrored sinks. For a conceptual repository model, large thermal shear stress, tensile stress, and deformation occur at the corner, between adjacent drifts, and at the boundary of the repository area, respectively. For a prescribed thermal loading, it is more efficient to mitigate the thermo-mechanical effects through enlarging the pit spacing than increasing the drift spacing.
Highlights
Due to the radioactivity and toxicity of nuclear waste, a final disposal solution is required for a sustainable nuclear power program[1]
The thermal stress at point A1 increases with the enlargement of pit spacing and decrease of drift spacing
To analyze the thermo-mechanical response of a repersitory, the thermal loadings are characterized as distributed decaying line heat sources, an image method in combination with a numerical integration scheme was developed
Summary
Due to the radioactivity and toxicity of nuclear waste, a final disposal solution is required for a sustainable nuclear power program[1]. The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company has submitted permit applications for the construction of a final repository in crystalline bedrock[2]. In the design of a geologic repository, the thermomechanical interaction induced by heat emitted from nuclear waste is a major factor. The heat can change the temperature field and create thermal stress in surrounding rocks[3]. The thermal stress may cause rock fractures increasing the possibility of groundwater intrusion into storage area[4]. Several appropriate local-scale models are developed to investigate the heat transfer or thermo-mechanical interaction around the central canister[6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. The method is first comapred with existent lierature, and applied to some hypothetical situations to examine the thermomechnical effects
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