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Sorption-Capacity Limited Retardation of Radionuclides Transport in Water-Saturated Packing Materials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

C. Pescatore  and
T. Sullivan
C. Pescatore
Affiliation:
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, N. Y., USA
T. Sullivan
Affiliation:
Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, N. Y., USA
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Abstract

Radionuclides breakthrough times as calculated through constant retardation factors obtained in dilute solutions are non-conservative. The constant retardation approach regards the solid as having infinite sorption capacity throughout the solid. However, as the solid becomes locally saturated, such as in the proximity of the waste form-packing materials interface, it will exhibit no retardation properties, and transport will take place as if the radionuclides were locally non-reactive. The magnitude of the effect of finite sorption capacity of the packing materials on radionuclide transport is discussed with reference to high-level waste package performance. An example based on literature sorption data indicates that the breakthrough time may be overpredicted by orders of magnitude using a constant retardation factor as compared to using the entire sorption isotherm to obtain a concentrationdependent retardation factor.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 44: Symposium N – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management VIII , 1984 , 369
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1985

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