PROJECTED IMPACT OF SULFATE ATTACK ON THE LONG-TERM PERFORMANCE OF A CONCRETE REPOSITORY

Saltstone is a cementitious waste form made by mixing salt solution originating from liquid waste storage tanks at the DOE Savannah River Site with a dry mix containing blast furnace slag, fly ash, and cement or lime. The wet mix is poured into a concrete repository for on-site disposal. Solidified Saltstone is a dense, alkaline, reducing, micro-porous, monolithic, cementitious matrix, containing a solution of salts within its pore structure. Sodium sulfate concentrations in the pore fluid are around 0.15 mol/L, and external sulfate attack on concrete barriers is expected to occur over time. To predict the long-term performance of concrete repositories, the STADIUM{reg_sign} code was used to simulate the reactive transport processes leading to formation of ettringite, an expansive mineral phase often associated with spalling or cracking. STADIUM{reg_sign} is a multi-ionic transport model based on a split operator approach that separates ionic movement and chemical reactions. Ionic transport is described by the extended Nernst-Planck equation for unsaturated media, and accounts for electrical coupling between ionic species, chemical activity, transport due to water content gradient, and temperature effects. STADIUM{reg_sign} does not predict whether physical damage will occur, or the impact on transport properties should fracturing occur. Thus the presence of ettringite was assumed to coincide with physical damage for the purpose of estimating effective transport properties. Effective properties for concrete barriers were estimated assuming complete hydraulic failure behind the ettringite front and unaltered properties ahead of the front. The ettringite front advances at a rate dependent on the diffusion coefficient assumed for the failed zone. A sensitivity study indicates a service life ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of years, depending on the barrier thickness and sulfate exposure conditions among other factors