Biosphere Implications Of Deep Disposal Of Nuclear Waste: The Upwards Migration Of Radionuclides In Vegetated Soils

by Howard S Wheater, J Nigel B Bell, Adrian P Butler, Daniel Ashworth, Graeme Shaw

Overview

The safety assessment of a deep repository for nuclear waste poses challenging scientific and technical questions. The risks from leakage of radionuclides from the repository, including transfers to the biosphere and the food chain must be assessed. This involves complex and poorly understood interactions between groundwater, soils, plants and the atmosphere. A unique, multidisciplinary experimental and modeling program at Imperial College London has been funded by UK NIREX to develop the science and to produce modeling tools to interpret and generalize the experimental data for safety assessment. This monograph brings together for the first time the accumulated results and experience from almost two decades of research. The results have important implications for the safety assessment of nuclear waste worldwide and provide new insights into the geochemical and biological controls on the upwards migration of radiochemicals in the near-surface environment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781860947438
Publisher:	Imperial College Press
Publication date:	07/31/2007
Series:	Series On Environmental Science And Management , #5
Pages:	420
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements     v
Preface     vii
Background     1
Introduction     3
Methods     11
Experimental Protocols     13
Background     13
Phase I and II Lysimeter Experiments     14
Soil Column Experiments     29
Mini-column Experiments     35
Modelling Radionuclide Transport and Uptake in Vegetated Soils     41
Introduction     41
Lysimeter System Model     42
Physically Based Modelling     57
Hydrological Model Applications     64
Discussion     84
Results     87
Radiochlorine     89
Background     89
Experimental Overview     90
Results     93
General Discussion     184
Radioiodine     188
Background     188
Experimental Overview     192
Results     194
General Discussion     226
Technetium     230
Background     230
Experimental Overview     237
Results     238
General Discussion     263
Radioselenium     266
Background     266
Experimental Overview     269
Results     269
General Discussion     294
Radiocations     300
Background     300
Experimental Overview     304
Results     305
General Discussion     338
Conclusions and Recommendations     343
Conclusions     345
Overview     345
Summary of Results     346
Experimental Design     361
Modelling     363
Conclusions and Future Directions     365
Colour Section     367
Appendix     379
Data Archive     381
Reference     383
Index     397