Radionuclide transport and retention at the core scale identified by GeoPET analysis and reactive transport modeling

Low-permeability Opalinus clay formations are considered as a potential host rock for the storage of high-level nuclear waste (Nagra 2002). The diffusion of dissolved species is the dominating transport process in this rock type (Van Loon et al. 2003). Stratification and spatial variability of composition cause anisotropic and heterogeneous diffusion patterns, which could significantly speed up diffusive transport compared to commonly assumed homogeneous conditions. Anisotropy of diffusive transport has been studied on oriented samples in diffusion cells and with positron emission tomography (Kulenkampff et al. 2016). The heterogeneity of the diffusive spreading is increased still further due to sandy layers and diagenetic carbonates, affecting the radionuclide migration behavior at the core scale.
Here, we parameterize a reactive transport model by using experimental and analytical data on Eu(III) sorption efficiency at the pore scale. The effective retention coefficients calculated at the pore scale serve as input values for the reactive transport simulation at the core scale. Diffusive transport model parametrization utilizes GeoPET/μCT results on the migration behavior of 22Na+ at the core scale. Numerical simulation is performed using an existing code (Yuan et al. 2019), which contains the reactive transport model for simulating reactive diffusion process at the core scale. The combination of pore-scale reactivity and core scale transport modeling provides critical insight into the radionuclide migration heterogeneity. We discuss these results with a focus on upscaling strategies to the field scale of host rocks.