A Coupled Heat and Water Flow Apparatus

Safe and permanent disposal of radioactive waste requires isolation of a number of diverse chemical elements form the environment. The Canadian Nuclear Fuel Waste Management Program is assessing the concept of disposing of waste in a vault excavated at a depth of 500 to 1000 m below the ground surface in plutonic rock of the Canadian Shield. The temperatures and hydraulic potential in the buffer and back fill material were investigated. To study the performance of a compacted buffer material under thermal and isothermal conditions, a coupled heat and water flow apparatus is designed and presented. In the preliminary design, a one-dimensional flow of heat and water was not achieved. however, control of temperature gradient, existence of one-dimensional flow, and uniformity of temperature and volumetric water content distributions at any cross section within the specimen are achieved in the modified design. Experimental results have shown that the temperature stabilizes very rapidly after a period of approximately 0. 107 days. The moisture moves away from the hot end along the longitudinal direction of the specimen due to imposed thermal gradient. The time required for moisture to stabilize is in order of days. 17 refs., 17 figs., 3 tabs.