Liange Zheng, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
Jonny Rutqvist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
Jens Birkholzer, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
Alexander Bond, Quintessa Limited, UK
Disposal of high-level radioactive waste in geologic repositories comprises of an engineered barrier system (EBS) that includes waste canister, buffer and/or concrete liner and the host rock (e.g. argillite and granite). Once emplaced, the heating-emitting waste disturbs the barrier system and induces coupled THMC within EBS and host rocks. Understanding and modeling of the coupled THMC perturbations is critical for assessing the performance of radioactive waste repositories. In this session we are interested in any work that is related to the THMC perturbation of EBS and host rocks, but particularly the following areas:
- Experimental and modeling of the THMC behavior under high temperature. Because most design concepts for the repository prescribe a thermal limit of 100 oC, most studies in the past focused on the THMC behavior under 100 oC. However, allowing higher temperature limit (e.g. 200 oC) will not only open the possibility of cost-saving designs, but also boost the confidence of modeling EBS and host rock performance.
- The THMC property change including fracturing around the interface area including but not limited to canister/bentonite, bentonite/concrete, bentonite/host rock, concrete/host rock. The evolution of EBS and host rock at the interfacial area has a profound impact on the long-term performance of the repository, often poise great challenging for numerical modeling.
- Thermally driven strongly coupled THMC processes at the larger scale, causing fracturing and/or impacting fracture network transport properties in the excavation disturbed zone around emplacement tunnels or at the repository scale potentially inducing seismicity.