The Effect of Precipitation Fronts Induced by Radionuclide Chain Decay and Elemental Solubility Limits on Near-Field Mass Transport

ABSTRACTThe formation and impact of precipitation fronts on the diffusional mass transport of radionuclides from a high-level nuclear waste canister through a bentonite buffer has been investigated in a series of numerical simulations. The precipitation fronts arise from chain decay and ingrowth, coupled with differences in elemental solubility limits and sorption properties. The fronts influence particularly the behavior of uranium, plutonium and neptunium isotopes. The isotopic concentration profiles across the buffer differ considerably from results obtained with models that employ elemental solubility limits simply as a boundary condition at the waste-bentonite interface.