Possible escape of radionuclides from radioactive waste storage sites

The customary question that arises in an examination of the possibility of creating a storage facility in a particular rocksalt formation is whether there is ground water nearby, since in view of the high solubility of rocksalt in water, ground water can quickly carry buried radionuclides into a zone of active water exchange. Another, equally important channel for carrying radioactive materials out of the storage site may be provided by macroscopic structural defects of the rocksalt formation, i.e., cracks, stratification, etc. The aim of this study is to consider a third way which radionuclides may be carried from a storage site as a result of microinhomogeneities in the rocksalt, viz., fine inclusions containing a saturated aqueous solution of salt (brine) and gas bubbles. The content of small liquid and gaseous-liquid inclusions (with a linear size of no more than 100 μm, usually) in natural rocksalt deposits may amount to several per cent of the total volume