▶ Date: 2022. 11. 03(THU)

▶ Time: 4:30 ~ 5:30PM

▶ Venue : Research Building I, #310 / Offline

▶ Speaker: Dr. Ji-Hun Ryu(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)

▶ Title: Important roles of natural analogue for the safety of geological disposal system for HLW/SF, Korea

▶ Abstract:

Several countries have been operating radioactive waste disposal (RWD) programs to construct their own geological disposal system (GDS) and used natural analogues (NA) studies to have reliability of the long-term safety of GDS. A GDS in Korea has been developing and we also need to support the reliability of the long-term safety with a generically approached NA study. The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has just launched an NA national R&D program for the first time in Korea to support the RWD program.

In Korea, concepts of a GDS for HLW have been developed. Based on the concepts of GDS, HLW is buried in a geological formation such as granite. The containers for HLW are copper-iron type and expected to have a life time of 1000 years. For a buffer material, a domestic Ca-bentonite with a certain density is being proposed.

It is very challenging to prove the long-term safety of GDS for HLW, when you have to prove it over thousand to million years.  NA study can be the intuitive way to give reliability of the long-term safety of GDS. NA studies provide important elements or conceptual models in designing GDS in many cases. For example, NA studies can elicit quantitative or qualitative information about the migration of nuclides in multi-barrier system. In addition, NA studies of geological and paleontological systems are very useful in providing the long-term stability and safety of GDS. NA studies can provide evidences for safety assessment to build confidence regarding the long-term performance of a GDS. Overall, NA studies can play an important role in building a relationship with and educating the public with reference to radioactive waste disposal.

In this study, we review some cases of NA studies in advanced countries for HLW disposal. We examine the differences among them and their roles in reflecting the country’s own GDS. We aim to develop the domestic NA studies by establishing the basic concepts of NA studies.