Solute transport in a single fracture involving an arbitrary length decay chain with rock matrix comprising different geological layers

- A model is developed to study radionuclide transport in fractured rocks.
- It accounts, at once, for any number of rock layers and arbitrary length decay-chains.
- An analytical solution, in Laplace domain, is obtained.
- Sensitivity analysis is performed for the chain 4 N + 3 (Am243 → Pu239 → U235 → Pa231).

A model is developed to describe solute transport and retention in fractured rocks. It accounts for advection along the fracture, molecular diffusion from the fracture to the rock matrix composed of several geological layers, adsorption on the fracture surface, adsorption in the rock matrix layers and radioactive decay-chains. The analytical solution, obtained for the Laplace-transformed concentration at the outlet of the flowing channel, can conveniently be transformed back to the time domain by the use of the de Hoog algorithm. This allows one to readily include it into a fracture network model or a channel network model to predict nuclide transport through channels in heterogeneous fractured media consisting of an arbitrary number of rock units with piecewise constant properties. More importantly, the simulations made in this study recommend that it is necessary to account for decay-chains and also rock matrix comprising at least two different geological layers, if justified, in safety and performance assessment of the repositories for spent nuclear fuel.