No CrossRef data available.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
A very small number of disposal containers of heat generating nuclear waste may have initial manufacturing defects that would lead to pin-hole type failures at the time of or shortly after emplacement. For sufficiently long-lived containers, only the the initial defects need be considered in modelling of release rates from the disposal vault. Two approaches to modelling of near-field mass transport from a single point source within a disposal room have been compared: the finite-element code MOTIF (A Model Of Transport In Fractured/porous media) and a boundary integral method (BIM). These two approaches were found to give identical results for a simplified model of the disposal room without groundwater flow. MOTIF has been then used to study the effects of groundwater flow on the mass transport out of the emplacement room.