Radionuclide migration analysis in porous rock

Ijiri, Yuji; not registered ; not registered; Watari, Shingo; K.E.Web*; not registered; not registered

JNC has been developed the performance assessment approaches for both fractured rock and porous rock. An equivalent continuum model is incorporated for solving the radionuclide migration in porous rock, while a discrete fracture network model is incorporated for solving the radionuclide migration in fractured rock (see more detail in Sawada et al. [1999]). This report describes the methodology, the data and the results of the performance assessment of porous rock. From the results of radionuclide migration analyses that were based on the hydrogeological properties obtained from the Neogene sedimentaly rock at the Tono mine, it was found that the release rate of selenium-79 and cesium-135 are dominant in porous rock. The sensitivity analyses using one-dimensional porous model revealed that hydraulic conductivity has more influences on the results than porosity does. In addition, it was found that smaller distribution coefficients of sandstone yield higher release rate than mudstone and tuff, and smaller distribution coefficients of saline water conditions yield higher release rate than fresh water conditions. The radionuclide migration in Neogene sedimentaly rock, where flow in rock matrix as well as in fractures are significant, was evaluated by superposing the results of porous model and fracture model. Since fracture model tends to yield more conservative results than porous model, it is obvious that the performance of Neogene sedimentary rock can be conservatively assessed by fracture model alone. The nuclide migration analyses performed in this report were based on the hydrogeological properties obtained at the depth between 20 meters and 200 meters frrom the ground surface. Therefore, it should be noted that the release rate at the depth of a future repository in Neogene sedimentary rock, 500 m, will be smaller than that shown in this report due to peemeability decrease from 200 m to 500 m.