Groundwater environments around the proposed nuclear waste repositories: compare and contrast the use of porous mediums versus fractured bedrock as barriers in radioactive waste disposal

Investigations are being carried out by many scientific bodies to study the long-term effectiveness of nuclear waste repositories in a number of different geological settings. Knowledge of how water and rock interact is an important factor when assessing how effective the radioactive waste repository will be. Water-rock reactions in the original material provide boundary conditions for monitoring the behaviour of backfill and buffer materials. They also control the geochemical speciation of leaking waste solutes and therefore the mobility and sorption retardation of the solute. The aim of this assignment is to compare and contrast the effectiveness of low hydraulic conductivity porus media, and fractured bedrock as hydrologic barriers for radioactive waste disposal. The Opalinus Clay and the Yucca Mountains will be used as examples