Scoping analyses of geochemical sealing of early cracks in a waste container and associated drip shield, Yucca Mountain, Nevada

Early after final emplacement of the nuclear waste containers at the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada, high-level-waste repository, tiny cracks (less than 200 μm wide, 1 to 2 cm deep, and a few centimeters long at most) could appear in the containers and in the drip shield protecting them. Modeling calculations were performed to understand how fast those cracks could be sealed. Under dripping conditions, they are expected to be bridged with water. If cracks are located in the drip shield, any further dripping on the waste containers located underneath will be limited. If cracks are located in a container, potentially harmful radionuclides could only travel by diffusion. In addition, water-bridged cracks will be sealed through at least two processes: precipitation of calcite with minor silica following evaporative concentration of the water residing in the cracks and continuous corrosion of the crack walls. The sealing rate is calculated as the intersection of the time of emergence of the cracks, the water dripping rate, and the decreasing evaporation rate. The evaporative driving force declines as short-lived radioactive elements, having given up much of the heat affecting the repository, are progressively depleted from the waste. Depending on the crack initiation time and environmental conditions, crack sealing varies from a few tens of years to a few thousand years. Because environmental conditions in the vicinity of the cracks and at the crack scale have not been produced, a parametric method scaling drift scale conditions is used.