Nuclide migration analysis in fractured rock

This paper describes the results of PA studies considering heterogeneous fracture characteristics, for the purpose of contributing for the performance assessment of the natural barrier system PA in H12 report (The second progress report on research and development for the Geological Disposal of HLW in Japan). In this study, 3-D discrete fracture network model (DFN) and 1-D multiple pathways model is applied for 100 m scale of rock block. Although nuclide release rate calculated by DFN are widely distributed among the realizations, it is shown that several tens realizations are enough number to understand the stochastic characteristics of the nuclide release. From the data uncertainty analysis, there are no significant effects for the nuclide retardation in fracture geometry parameters such as fracture radius, density and etc. 1-D multiple pathways model is developed with focusing on the heterogeneity of the transmissivity, which has a large effect to the nuclide retardation effects. The nuclide release rate calculated by using 1-D multiple pathways model approximates to the results of DFN. This result also shows that the relatively large fractures/faults that connects disposal tunnel and downstream faults have an important role for performance assessment in natural barrier system. (author)