Author(s): L.A. Bolshov; A.M. Dykhne; P.S. Kondratenko

Linked Author(s):

Keywords: Rock massif; transport; fluctuation; radioactive waste disposal

Abstract: Reliability of radioactive waste (RW) disposal in geological media depends to a significant extent on sparse spatial and temporal combinations of circumstances and events promoting penetration of radionuclides into the environment. This makes the assessment of the storage reliability in many respects similar to problems concerning transport processes in strongly irregular solid-state systems. In this study, the properties of the risk factor R involved in the storage reliability criterion are analyzed with respect to its dependence on geometrical parameters of the RWrepository. The statistical averaged value of the risk factor (R) is shown to be a non-monotonic function of the repository-medium contact area S. If S exceeds the value of some characteristic area Sc of the geological medium, the averaged risk factor (R) decreases with increasing S. On the contrary, at lower values of S (S < S c), this factor has a maximum at the value S close to S c and then decreases with decreasing S. The relative statistical uncertainty of the R factor is low at S » S c, and it is about unity at S ≤ S c. The established features of the risk factor behavior can be used to optimize the RWrepository. However, fluctuations of geological medium characteristics also impose definite limits on the accuracy of the assessed reliability of RW disposal.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00221686.2005.9641238

Year: 2005