Three-dimensional thermal analysis of in-floor type nuclear waste repository for a ceramic waste form
- Resource Type
- Authors
- G. Devlet Sizgek
- Source
- Nuclear Engineering and Design. 235:101-109
- Subject
- Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Engineering
Waste management
Period (periodic table)
Granitic rock
business.industry
Mechanical Engineering
Borehole
Radioactive waste
Synroc
law.invention
Nuclear Energy and Engineering
law
visual_art
visual_art.visual_art_medium
General Materials Science
Ceramic
Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
Thermal analysis
Floor type
business
Waste Management and Disposal
- Language
- ISSN
- 0029-5493
A thermal model is constructed and analyses are performed for an ‘in-floor’ type nuclear waste repository in granitic rock for a high level nuclear waste (HLW)-bearing ceramic waste form (synroc). Transient calculations for a three-dimensional (3-D) model have been carried out for both 20 and 10 wt.% HLW-bearing synroc, for surface cooling periods between reactor discharge and geological disposal varying from 5 to 40 years. This study investigates the temperature distribution in one of the boreholes of a hypothetical tunnel for a basic geometrical setting as well as the effect of varying the distance between adjacent boreholes and the distance between adjacent tunnels. The temperatures in the repository were found to be sensitive to the interim surface cooling period as well as the amount of waste loaded. The results showed that decreasing the spacing between the canisters has a more pronounced effect on the temperature field than decreasing the spacing between the tunnels.