Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:31:15.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Temperature and tortuosity effect on gas migration in a high-level waste disposal tunnel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

D. Justinavicius  and
P. Poskas
D. Justinavicius*
Affiliation:
Lithuanian Energy Institute, Nuclear Engineering Laboratory, Breslaujos str. 3, LT-44403 Kaunas, Lithuania
P. Poskas
Affiliation:
Lithuanian Energy Institute, Nuclear Engineering Laboratory, Breslaujos str. 3, LT-44403 Kaunas, Lithuania
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Corrosion of steel canisters, disposed of in a repository for high-level waste (HLW), leads to generation of hydrogen gas for a long period after the repository's closure. The accumulation of hydrogen gas may lead to significant desaturation and unacceptable build-up of pressure in the backfilled disposal tunnels if the gas cannot escape through the low-permeability host rock. Consequently, the investigation of gas migration is of high relevance in the assessment of the repository's performance.

In this paper, the results of numerical investigations on gas migration performed using the computer code TOUGH2 (USA) are presented. The objective was to investigate migration of gas generated in a single disposal tunnel of a conceptual geological repository in a clay formation, which was suggested for benchmark studies in the European Commission project FORGE (Fate Of Repository GasEs). The analysis was focused on evaluation of the impact of an initial temperature in the repository and of different tortuosity models on gas migration. It was revealed that gas migration results were dependent on tortuosity model, while temperature variation in the repository had minor impact.

Keywords

geological disposalclay formationgas migration modellingtemperaturetortuosity model
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 79 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 1317 - 1325
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2015. This is an open access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2015

References

Dalage, P., Cui, Y.J. and Tang, A.M. (2010) Clays in radioactive waste disposal. Journal of Rocks Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, 2, 111–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghanbarian, B., Hunt, A.G., Ewing, R.P. and Sahimi, M. (2013) Tortuosity in porous media: a critical review. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 77, 1461–1477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grupa, J. and Schröder, T.J. (2009) PA Approach to Gas Migration. European Commission PAMINA (Performance Assessment Methodologies IN Application to Guide the Development of the Safety Case) Deliverable Report D3.2.1, Luxembourg.Google Scholar
Haijtink, B. and Rodwell, W. (1998) Project on the Effects of GAS in Underground Storage Facilities for Radioactive Waste (Pegasus Project). European Commission Report EUR 18167 EN, Luxembourg.Google Scholar
Justinavicius, D., Narkuniene, A. and Poskas, P. (2012) Impact of different factors on gas migration in the disposal cell of conceptual geological repository for high level radioactive waste. Mechanika, 18, 650–656.Google Scholar
Manai, T (1997) EVEGAS-European Validation Exercise of GAS Migration Model through Geological Media (Phase 3—Final Report). European Commission Report EUR 17557 EN, Luxembourg.Google Scholar
Mualem, Y (1976) A new model for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated porous media. Water Resources Research, 12, 513–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, S. (2014). EC FORGE project: updated con-sideration of gas generation and migration in the safety case. Pp. 241-258 in: Gas Generation and Migration in Deep Geological Radioactive Waste Repositories (R.P. Shaw, editor). Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 415, http://doi.org/10.1144/SP415.8 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ortiz, L., Volckaert, G., De Canniere, P., Put, M., Sen, M. A, Horseman, S.T., Harrington, IE, Impey, M. and Einchcomb, S. (1997) MEGAS: Modelling and Experiments on GAS Migration in Repository Host Rocks (Phase 2—Final Report). European Commission Report EUR 17453 EN, Luxembourg.Google Scholar
Pruess, K., Oldenburg, C. and Moridis, G. (1999) TOUGH2 Users's guide-Version 2.0. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Report LBNL-43134. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA.Google Scholar
Rodwell, W.R. (2000) Research into Gas Generation and Migration in Radioactive Waste Repository Systems (PROGRESS Project). European Commission Report EUR 19133 EN, Luxembourg.Google Scholar
Rodwell, W., Norris, S., Cool, W., Cunado, M., Johnson, L., Mäntynen, M., Müller, W., Sellin, P., Snellman, M., Talandier, J., Vieno, T. and Vines, S. (2003) A Thematic Network on Gas Issues in Safety Assessment of Deep Repositories for Radioactive Waste (GASNET). European Commission Report EUR 20620 EN, Luxembourg.Google Scholar
Thunderhead Engineering (2010) PetraSim User Manual—Version 5.0. Thunderhead Engineering, Manhattan, USA.Google Scholar
Towler, G., Bond, A.E., Watson, S., Norris, S., Suckling, P. and Benbow, S. (2012) Understanding the behaviour of gas in a geological disposal facility: modelling coupled processes and key features at different scales. Mineralogical Magazine, 76, 3365–3371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Genuchten, M.Th. (1980) A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 44, 892–898.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendling, J. (2009) Draft report on definition of benchmark studies on repository-scale numerical simulations of gas. European Commission FORGE (Fate Of Repository GasEs) Deliverable Report D1.1, Luxembourg.Google Scholar
Wendling, J., Yu, L., Treille, E., Dymitrowska, M., Pellegrini, D., Ahusborde, E., Jurak, M., Amaziane, B., Caro, F., Genty, A., Poskas, P., Justinavicius, D., Sentis, M., Norris, S., Bond, A., Leung H. and Calder, N.J. (2013a) Final Report on Benchmark Studies on Repository-scale Numerical Simulations of Gas Migration, Part 1: Cell Scale Benchmark. European Commission FORGE (Fate Of Repository GasEs) Deliverable Report D1.6, Luxembourg.Google Scholar
Wendling, J., Treille, E., Dymitrowska, M., Pellegrini, D., Ahusborde, E., Jurak, M., Amaziane, B., Caro, F., Genty, A., Poskas, P., Justinavicius, D., Sentis, M., Norris, S., Bond, A., Leung H. and Calder, N.J. (2013b) Final Report on Benchmark Studies on Repository-scale Numerical Simulations of Gas Migration, Part 2: Module Scale Benchmark. European Commission FORGE (Fate Of Repository GasEs) Deliverable Report D1.6, Luxembourg.Google Scholar
Wendling, J., Treille, E., Norris, S., Thatcher, K., Bond, A., Leung, H. and Calder, N.J. (2013c) Final Report on Benchmark Studies on Repository-scale Numerical Simulations of Gas Migration, Part 3: Repository Scale Benchmark. European Commission FORGE (Fate Of Repository GasEs) Deliverable Report D1.6, Luxembourg.Google Scholar