Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T07:22:43.315Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Influence of Non-Linear Sorption on Colloid Facilitated Radionuclide Transport Through Fractured Media

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1992

Paul A. Smith
Paul A. Smith*
Affiliation:
Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
Get access

Abstract

In the safety assessment of nuclear waste repositories, sorption of radionuclides on the surfaces of colloids may significantly modify transport behaviour where colloid concentration is sufficiently high. In the case of fractured geological media, colloids may be excluded from matrix pores, in which case radionuclides bound to them are not subject to the retarding effects of matrix diffusion and sorption onto matrix pore surfaces.

A model is presented describing colloid facilitated transport through fractured media with non-linear sorption. A simple criterion is developed to predict when the presence of colloids will have a significant influence on transport and effects resulting from non-linearity of sorption are described. However, lack of comprehensive sorption data, as well as computational efficiency, mean that the use of a simplified transport model, with linear sorption both on pore surfaces and colloids, is desirable if it can be demonstrated to be conservative. A further criterion is developed to predict where such a model, with linear sorption calculated for the highest concentration encountered along the flow path, would be expected to yield conservative results.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 294: Symposium V – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XVI , 1992 , 825
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Light, W.B. Lee, W.W.-L., Chambr, P.L.4 and Pigford, T.H. in American Nuclear Society Transactions, 1990 Annual Meeting, Nashville, Tenessee, USA, June 10–14.Google Scholar
2. Travis, B.J. and Nuttall, H.E. Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 44, 969 (1985).Google Scholar
3. Mills, W.B. Liu, S. and Fong, F.K. report for contract no.68-03-3513, Tetra Tech, Inc., Lafayette, California 94549, USA (1985).Google Scholar
4. Grindrod, P., SKI Technical Report 90:4, Stockholm, Sweden (1990).Google Scholar
5. Hwang, Y., Pigford, T.H., Lee, W.W.-L. and Chambrd, P.L. in Proceedings of the American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, Nov.26-30, 1989.Google Scholar
6. Smith, P.A. and Degueldre, C., in Proceedings of the Third International Conference on “Chemistry and Migration Behaviour of Actinides and Fission Products in the Geosphere”, Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, 21–25 October 1991, J. Contaminant Hydrology (to appear).Google Scholar
7. Smith, P.A. and Jakob, A., in Annual Report 1989, Annex IV: PSI Nuclear Energy Research Progress Report, 55, PSI, Wiirenlingen and Villigen.Google Scholar
8. Hadermann, J. and Rdsel, F., EIR-Bericht Nr.506, PSI, Wiirenlingen and Villigen and Nagra NTB 83–23, Nagra, Wettingen (1983).Google Scholar
9. Jakob, A., Hadermann, J. and Résel, F., PSI-Bericht Nr.54, PSI, Wiirenlingen and Villigen and Nagra NTB 90–05, Nagra, Wettingen (1989).Google Scholar
10. Hadermann, J. and Rösel, F., EIR-Bericht Nr. 551, PSI, Würenlingen and Villigen and Nagra NTB 85–40, Nagra, Baden (1985).Google Scholar