• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1013-1016
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• 2004

High level radioactive wastes, such as spent fuels generated from nuclear power plant, will be disposed in a deep geological repository. To maintain the integrity of the disposal canister and to carry out the process effectively, the emplacement process for the canister system in borehole of disposal tunnel should be well defined. In this study, the concept of the disposal canister emplacement process for deep geological disposal was established. To do this, the spent fuel arisings and disposal rate were reviewed. Also, not only design requirements, such canister and disposal depth but also preliminary repository layout concept were reviewed. Based on the requirements and the other bases, the canister emplacement process in the borehole of the disposal tunnel was established. The established concept of the disposal canister emplacement process will be improved continuously with the future studies. And this concept can be effectively used in implementing the reference repository system of our own case.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.8
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• pp.2828-2839
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• 2022

This study developed a safety assessment tool for geological disposal systems called APro, a systemically integrated modeling system based on modularizing and coupling the processes which need to be considered in a geological disposal system. Thermal, hydraulic, chemical, canister failure, radionuclide release and transport processes were considered in the current version of APro. Each of the unit processes in APro consists of a single Default Module, and several Alternative Modules which can increase the flexibility of the model. As an initial stage of developing the modularization concept and modeling interface, the Default Modules of each unit process were described, with one Alternative Module of chemical process. The computation part of APro is mainly a MATLAB workspace controlling COMSOL and PHREEQC, which are coupled by an operator splitting scheme. The APro model domain is a stylized geological disposal system employing the Swedish disposal concept (KBS-3 type), but the repository layout can be freely adjusted. In order to show the applicability of APro to the total system performance assessment of geological disposal system, some sample simulations were conducted. From the results, it was confirmed that coupling of the thermal and hydraulic processes and coupling of the canister failure and the radionuclide release processes were well reflected in APro. In addition, the technical connectivity between COMSOL and PHREEQC was also confirmed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.244-253
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• 2000

A Simple Large Model (SLM), which can be used to make thermal calculation for a deep geological repository with finite number of HLW canisters, was developed. In order to develop the SLM, a Simple Basic Model (SBM), which will be a unit of the SLM, was optimized first. The SBM was optimized to achieve the same maximum buffer temperature as that of the Detailed Basic Model (DBM) representing the real geometric aspects of the repository. In contrast to the models with the assumption of infinite number of canisters which cannot consider boundary effect, the SLM can model the real repository with finite number of canisters and thus consider the boundary effect. Thermal results from the SLM can be used to evaluate the reliability of the models, which do not consider boundary effect. This model can also be used to simulate the thermal layout design and to analyze the thermal safety of a deep geological repository as well as an underground laboratory.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.429-438
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• 2008

The objective of the present study is the depth and layout optimizations of a single layer, high level radioactive waste repository in a discontinuous rock mass with special joint set arrangements. A single layer repository model, considering variations in the repository depths, pitches, and tunnel spacings, is used to analyze the thermomechanical interaction behavior. It is assumed that the repository is constructed in saturated granite with joints; the PWR spent fuel in a disposal canister is installed in a deposition drift which is then sealed with compacted bentonite; and the backfill material is filled in the repository tunnel. The decay heat generated by the high level radioactive wastes governs the thermomechanical behavior of the near field rock mass of the repository. The temperature and displacement behavior of the repository is influenced more by the pitch variations than the tunnel spacing and repository depth. However, the stress behavior is influenced more by the repository depth variations than the pitch and tunnel spacing. For the final selection of the tunnel spacing, pitch, and repository depth, other aspects such as the nuclide migration through a groundwater flow path, construction costs, operation costs, and so on should be considered.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1540-1554
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• 2023

To use nuclear energy sustainably, spent nuclear fuel, classified as high-level radioactive waste and inevitably discharged after electricity generation by nuclear power plants, must be managed safely and isolated from the human environment. In Korea, the land area is limited and the amount of high-level radioactive waste, including spent nuclear fuels to be disposed, is relatively large. Thus, it is particularly necessary to maximize disposal efficiency. In this study, a high-efficiency deep geological repository concept was developed to enhance disposal efficiency. To this end, design strategies and requirements for a high-efficiency deep geological repository system were established, and engineered barrier modules with a disposal canister for pressurized water reactor (PWR)-type and pressurized heavy water reactor type Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) plants were developed. Thermal and structural stability assessments were conducted for the repository system; it was confirmed that the system was suitable for the established strategies and requirements. In addition, the results of the nuclear safety assessment showed that the radiological safety of the new system met the Korean safety standards for disposal of high-level radioactive waste in terms of radiological dose. To evaluate disposal efficiency in terms of the disposal area, the layout of the developed disposal areas was assessed in terms of thermal limits. The estimated disposal areas were 2.51 km² and 1.82 km² (existing repository system: 4.57 km²) and the excavated host rock volumes were 2.7 Mm³ and 2.0 Mm³ (existing repository system: 4.5 Mm³) for thermal limits of 100 ℃ and 130 ℃, respectively. These results indicated that the area and the excavated volume of the new repository system were reduced by 40-60% compared to the existing repository system. In addition, methods to further improve the efficiency were derived for the disposal area for deep geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel. The results of this study are expected to be useful in establishing a national high-level radioactive waste management policy, and for the design of a commercial deep geological repository system for spent nuclear fuels.