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Localized Dryout: an Approach for Managing the Thermal-Hydrological Effects of Decay Heat at Yucca Mountain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Thomas A. Buscheck ,
John J. Nitao  and
Lawrence D. Ramspot
Thomas A. Buscheck
Affiliation:
Earth Sciences Division, LLNL, (all at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, L-206, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, CA 94551)
John J. Nitao
Affiliation:
Earth Sciences Division, LLNL, (all at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, L-206, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, CA 94551)
Lawrence D. Ramspot
Affiliation:
TRW (all at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, L-206, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, CA 94551)
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Abstract

For a nuclear waste repository in the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain, there are two thermal loading approaches to using decay heat constructively-that is, to substantially reduce relative humidity and liquid flow near waste packages for a considerable time, and thereby limit waste package degradation and radionuclide dissolution and release. “Extended dryout” achieves these effects with a thermal load high enough to generate large-scale (coalesced) rock dryout. “Localized dryout”(which uses wide drift spacing and a thermal load too low for coalesced dryout) achieves them by maintaining a large temperature difference between the waste package and drift wail; this is done with close waste package spacing (generating a high line-heat load) and/or low-thermal-conductivity backfill in the drift. Backfill can greatly reduce relative humidity on the waste package in both the localized and extended dryout approaches. Besides using decay heat constructively, localized dryout reduces the possibility that far-field temperature rise and condensate buildup above the drifts might adversely affect waste isolation.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 412: Symposium V – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XIX , 1995 , 715
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1996

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References

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