High-level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal is considered to constitute a disposal system within a deep rock mass using deep geological repository. A deep geological disposal system has an engineered barrier system (EBS) consisting of canisters, buffer material, and backfill material. | Progress in Nuclear Energy 137 2021 103759 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Progress in Nuclear Energy journal homepage locate pnucene Temperature effect on the thermal and hydraulic conductivity of Korean bentonite buffer material Seunghun Park a 1 Seok Yoon b 1 Sangki Kwon a Min-Su Lee b Geon-Young Kim b a Dept. of Energy Resources Engineering Inha University 100 Inha-ro Michuhol-gu Incheon South Korea b Radioactive Waste Disposal Division Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute 111 Daedeok-daero 989 Beon-gil Yuseong-gu Daejeon South Korea A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Keywords High-level radioactive waste HLW disposal is considered to constitute a disposal system within a deep rock Gyeongju bentonite mass using deep geological repository. A deep geological disposal system has an engineered barrier system EBS Thermal conductivity consisting of canisters buffer material and backfill material. Among these items the buffer material protects a Hydraulic conductivity canister from groundwater inflow and prevents radionuclide outflow. It is an also very important factor for Temperature effect evaluating the stability of a disposal system in which heat is propagated from the canisters. The aim of this study was to evaluate the thermal and hydraulic properties of Gyeongju bentonite a buffer material from Korea. The thermal conductivity and hydraulic conductivity of Gyeongju bentonite were measured according to different degrees of saturation and to dry density. The whole process is based on the temperature change induced in the disposal environment. The thermal conductivity increased as temperature increased and as did the temperature effect with high initial degree of saturation. Additionally the hydraulic conductivity also increased as temper ature did and decreased with high dry density. After the process of heating and cooling the thermal and hy draulic conductivity of the bentonite presented irreversible changes. 1. Introduction .
