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Technical Issues Associated with Deep Repositories for Radioactive Waste in Different Geological Environments

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Technical Issues Associated with Deep Repositories for Radioactive Waste in Different Geological Environments Technical issues associated with deep repositories for radioactive waste in different geological environments Better regulation science programme Science report: SC060054/SR1 The Environment Agency is the leading public body protecting and improving the environment in England and Wales. It’s our job to make sure that air, land and water are looked after by everyone in today’s society, so that tomorrow’s generations inherit a cleaner, healthier world. Our work includes tackling flooding and pollution incidents, reducing industry’s impacts on the environment, cleaning up rivers, coastal waters and contaminated land, and improving wildlife habitats. This report is the result of research commissioned and funded by the Environment Agency’s Science Programme. Published by: Author(s): Environment Agency, Rio House, Waterside Drive, R Metcalfe, SP Watson, Aztec West, Almondsbury, Bristol, BS32 4UD Tel: 01454 624400 Fax: 01454 624409 Dissemination Status: www.environment-agency.gov.uk Publicly available ISBN: 978-1-84911-092-1 Keywords: Radioactive waste, Repositories, Geological © Environment Agency – August 2009 environment, Disposal concepts, Technical issues All rights reserved. This document may be reproduced Research Contractor: with prior permission of the Environment Agency. Quintessa Limited, The Hub, 14 Station Road, Henley- on-Thames, Oxon. RG9 1AY The views and statements expressed in this report are those of the author alone. The views or statements Environment Agency’s Project Manager: expressed in this publication do not necessarily David Copplestone, Richard Fairclough House, represent the views of the Environment Agency and the Warrington Environment Agency cannot accept any responsibility for such views or statements. Collaborator(s): A Bath, T McEwen, D. Bennett This report is printed on Cyclus Print, a 100% recycled stock, which is 100% post consumer waste and is totally Science Project Number: chlorine free. Water used is treated and in most cases SC060054/SR1 returned to source in better condition than removed. Product Code: Further copies of this summary are available from our SCHO0809BQVU-E-P publications catalogue: http://publications.environment- agency.gov.uk or our National Customer Contact Centre: T: 08708 506506 E: [email protected]. ii Science Report – Technical issues associated with deep repositories for radioactive waste in different geological environments Science at the Environment Agency Science underpins the work of the Environment Agency. It provides an up-to-date understanding of the world about us and helps us to develop monitoring tools and techniques to manage our environment as efficiently and effectively as possible. The work of the Environment Agency’s Science Department is a key ingredient in the partnership between research, policy and operations that enables the Environment Agency to protect and restore our environment. The science programme focuses on five main areas of activity: • Setting the agenda, by identifying where strategic science can inform our evidence-based policies, advisory and regulatory roles; • Funding science, by supporting programmes, projects and people in response to long-term strategic needs, medium-term policy priorities and shorter-term operational requirements; • Managing science, by ensuring that our programmes and projects are fit for purpose and executed according to international scientific standards; • Carrying out science, by undertaking research – either by contracting it out to research organisations and consultancies or by doing it ourselves; • Delivering information, advice, tools and techniques, by making appropriate products available to our policy and operations staff. Steve Killeen Head of Science Science Report – Technical issues associated with deep repositories for radioactive waste in different geological environments iii Executive summary This report reviews technical issues related to the development of a deep geological repository for higher activity radioactive wastes in England and Wales. The study focuses on the post-closure phase and only considers construction and operational issues which could affect the ability to achieve satisfactory post-closure safety. This project aimed to: • select a set of geological environments to represent the range of plausible repository host environments in England and Wales and highlight a range of technical issues; • identify the environment-specific broad technical issues that would need to be considered when evaluating the safety of each environment. The work was carried out in two phases, each of which included a workshop attended by experts from outside the main project team: • an initial phase in which geological environments and associated technical issues were defined; • a second phase in which refinements were made to the definitions of geological environments and technical issues, the state of knowledge on the latter was reviewed and their potential importance was established. In the first phase of the project, geological environments, wastes, engineered components and disposal concepts were identified, described by the project team and then discussed at the first expert workshop. Subsequently, the classifications and descriptions were reviewed periodically. This iteration was carried out to confirm that the classifications were appropriate for illustrating the range of important technical issues. Classifications made during the first phase were generally found to be adequate for this purpose and only small changes were needed in the second phase. Nine geological environments were identified: • Environment 1 – Hard fractured rock to surface. • Environment 2 – Hard fractured rock overlain by relatively high-permeability sedimentary rocks in which advective transport dominates. • Environment 3 – Hard fractured rock overlain by a sedimentary rock sequence containing at least one significant low-permeability formation in which diffusion dominates solute transport. • Environment 4 – Evaporite host rock. • Environment 5 – Siliceous host rock. • Environment 6 – Indurated mudrock host rock. • Environment 7 – Plastic clay host rock. • Environment 8 – Carbonate host rock. • Environment 9 – Non-evaporitic rock with hypersaline groundwater. The precise classification of the environments was less important than making sure that the characteristics of all plausible repository host environments in England and Wales were considered. iv Science Report – Technical issues associated with deep repositories for radioactive waste in different geological environments Identification of technical issues was undertaken partly in parallel with that of geological environments. The project team initially developed a list of example technical issues, based on prior knowledge and expert judgments of team members, and published literature concerning radioactive waste disposal. Example technical issues were used to inform participants in the first expert workshop of the kinds of issues and the level of detail needed in the project. Participants then expanded the list of technical issues. Following the workshop, the project team added to the list from further literature reviews and expert knowledge. The resulting notes were circulated to participants, and the feedback received was used to prepare a final list of technical issues and associated descriptions. In the second phase of the project, team members used their knowledge and literature surveys to prepare a summary of the state of knowledge on each technical issue for the second expert workshop. Participants in this workshop expanded the list of issues, descriptions of these issues and corresponding knowledge summary. This process resulted in the identification of the following technical issues: • Issue 1: Influence of different wasteform types on the design of the engineered barrier system (EBS). • Issue 2: Interactions between engineered components. • Issue 3: EBS/host rock interactions. • Issue 4: Impact of groundwater/porewater on EBS materials (including the impact of saline water). • Issue 5: Duration for which EBS materials maintain their function (durability). • Issue 6: Gas/groundwater (or porewater) interactions. • Issue 7: Characterising the site adequately. • Issue 8: Demonstrating long-term stability. • Issue 9: Impact of resaturation. Some of these issues are statements of principle that need to be taken into account during site selection and concept design and development. The issues are mostly inter-related. For example, Issue 3 (EBS/host rock interactions) depends partly upon Issue 4 (impact of groundwater/porewater on EBS materials). Inflow of groundwater to a bentonite buffer that forms part of an EBS (Issue 3) will result in the bentonite swelling and exerting a pressure on the surrounding rock (Issue 4). The list of technical issues is dominated by reference to the EBS; only three issues explicitly focus on the geosphere (Issues 6, 7 and 8). The lack of explicit and more detailed geosphere-specific issues does not imply that the geosphere is less important. Instead, geosphere-specific issues that would impact upon safety are implicit in the descriptions of the geological environments, and discussions of how repository design- related issues will be affected by the characteristics of the host geological environment. The report concludes that the design of a repository should be matched to the characteristics of its host geological environment with optimum safety, reasonable costs and no undue difficulties in technical implementation.
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