Influences of humid substances, alkaline conditions and colloids on radionuclide migration in natural barrier

Mukai, Masayuki ; Ueda, Masato; Inada, Daisuke; Yukawa, Kazuhiko; Maeda, Toshikatsu; Iida, Yoshihisa 

For better quantitative understanding of radionuclide migration for safety assessment of geologic disposal, JAERI has been conducting experimental and modeling studies on influences of humic substances, highly alkaline conditions and colloids on sorptive and diffusional behavior of TRU in geologic materials. In the absence of fulvic acid, one of humic substances, diffusion of Am through a tuff sample was not detected. By adding fulvic acid, Am was detected in the downstream cell, which indicates the diffusion through the sample. Highly alkaline conditions arisen from cementitious materials may spread by altering chemical and physical properties of geologic materials. Through-diffusion experiments of alkaline species in granite showed that the effective diffusion coefficient of Ca and OH in a cement-equilibrated aqueous solution were found to be higher by almost two orders of magnitude than Na and OH in a NaOH solution. Radionuclide migration can be enhanced by colloids, and thus a calculation code describing the effect of colloids on radionuclide migration has been required.