Investigation of 3H, 99Tc, and 90Sr transport in fractured rock and the effects of fractured filling/coating material at LILW disposal facility

Won-Seok Kim, Sangsoo Han, Jinmo Ahn, and Wooyong Um 

Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 2019, 41, 411–425

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-018-0123-y

Abstract

Batch adsorption, batch diffusion, and flow-through column experiments were conducted using groundwater and fractured rock collected in unsaturated zone to increase our understanding of sorption and transport behavior of radionuclides. Increasing Kd values were observed in the sequence 90Sr, 99Tc, and 3H regardless of the geological media tested. For all sorbing radionuclides, Kd values for the fracture-filling/coating material were observed to be higher than those for without fracture-filling/coating material regardless of the groundwater. These higher Kd values are the result of zeolite mineral in filling/coating material of fractured rock. The batch diffusion and flow-through column experiments were also conducted using the same fractured rock sample, and the results of diffusion and column experiments showed similar trend of radionuclide sorption and transport to sorption experiment. In this study, sorption Kd of radionuclide was determined and used to increase our understanding of radionuclide retardation through fracture-filling/coating materials.