A mechanistic model for leaching from low-level radioactive waste packages

The development of a waste leaching model to predict radionuclide releases from porous wastes in corrodible outer containers in unsaturated conditions and/or conditions of intermittent water flow is summarized in this paper. Three major processes have been conceptualized as necessarily participating in waste leaching: infiltration of water to the waste package; interaction of this water with the waste; and exit of radionuclide-laden water from the waste package. Through the exit point, the main features of the whole leaching process ware held in common. The departure occurs in two main ways: 1) the method of entrance of the radionuclides to leachant (i.e. part of the waste-water interaction phase outlined earlier); and 2) the mode of exit from waste form/waste package (i.e., the exit of radionuclide-laden water phase). The first branching point, which occurs in relation to 1), leads to either readily soluble species directly entering leachant on contact, or to other processes - mainly expected to be diffusion, dissolution or ion exchange, or some combination thereof