Evaluation of a temporary repository of radioactive waste

Abstract

The confinement of radioactive waste (radionuclides) in underground installations has to take into account its influence on the environment, the solvent action and the waste groundwater drag. This work evaluates by computer simulations how radionuclides migrate through the subsurface of a typical site in Mexico. The simulations show preferential routes that the contaminant plume follows over time. Results indicate that the radionuclides flow is highly irregular and it is influenced by failures in the area and its interactions in the fluid–solid matrix. The obtained concentration of the radionuclide is as expected.