Table Of ContentDevelopments in Geotechnical Engineering, 76
Waste Disposal in Rock
R. Pusch
Clay Technology AB, IDEON Research Center, S-223 70 Lund, Sweden
Department of Geotechnology, Lund University of Technology, S-221 00 Lund, Sweden
ELSEVIER
Amsterdam — London — New York — Tokyo 1994
Further titles in this series:
Volumes 2, 3, 5-7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16A, 22 and 26 are out of print
I. G. SANGLERAT - THE PENETROMETER AND SOIL EXPLORATION
4. R. SILVESTER - COASTAL ENGINEERING. 1 AND 2
8. L.N. PERSEN - ROCK DYNAMICS AND GEOPHYSICAL EXPLORATION
Introduction to Stress Waves in Rocks
II. H.K. GUPTA AND B.K. RASTOGI - DAMS AND EARTHQUAKES
14. B. VOIGHT (Editor) - ROCKSLIDES AND AVALANCHES. 1 and 2
17. A.P.S. SELVADURAI - ELASTIC ANALYSIS OF SOIL-FOUNDATION INTERACTION
18. J. FEDA - STRESS IN SUBSOIL AND METHODS OF FINAL SETTLEMENT CALCULATION
19. A. KÉZDI - STABILIZED EARTH ROADS
20. E.W. BRAND AND R.P. BRENNER (Editors) - SOFT-CLAY ENGINEERING
21. A. MYSLIVE AND Z. KYSELA - THE BEARING CAPACITY OF BUILDING FOUNDATIONS
23. P. BRUUN - STABILITY OF TIDAL INLETS - Theory and Engineering
24. Ζ. BAZANT - METHODS OF FOUNDATION EGINEERING
25. Â. KÉZDI - SOIL PHYSICS - Selected Topics
27. D. STEPHENSON - ROCKFILL IN HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING
28. P.E. FRIVIK, N. JANBU, R. SAETERSDAL AND L.I. FINBORUD (Editors) - GROUND FREEZING 1980
29. P. PETER - CANAL AND RIVER LEVÉES
30. J. FEDA - MECHANICS OF PARTICULATE MATERIALS - The Principles
31. Q. ZÂRUBA AND V. MENCL - LANDSLIDES AND THEIR CONTROL
Second completely revised edition
32. I.W. FARMER (Editor) - STRATA MECHANICS
33. L. HOBST AND J. ZAJÎC - ANCHORING IN ROCK AND SOIL
Second completely revised edition
34. G. SANGLERAT, G. OLIVARI AND B. CAMBOU - PRACTICAL PROBLEMS IN SOIL MECHANICS AND
FOUNDATION ENGINEERING, 1 and 2
35. L. RÉTHÂTI - GROUNDWATER IN CIVIL ENGINEERING
36. S.S. VYALOV - RHEOLOGICAL FUNDAMENTALS OF SOIL MECHANICS
37. P. BRUUN (Editor) - DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF MOUNDS FOR BREAKWATER AND
COASTAL PROTECTION
38. W.F. CHEN AND G.Y. BALADI - SOIL PLASTICITY - Theory and Implementation
39. E.T.HANRAHAN - THE GEOTECTONICS OF REAL MATERIALS: THE £e METHOD
gk
40. J. ALDORF AND K. EXNER - MINE OPENINGS - Stability and Support
41. J.E. GILLOT - CLAY IN ENGINEERING GEOLOGY
42. A.S. CAKMAK (Editor) - SOIL DYNAMICS AND LIQUEFACTION
43. A.S. CAKMAK (Editor) - SOIL-STRUCTURE INTERACTION
44. A.S. CAKMAK (Editor) - GROUND MOTION AND ENGINEERING SEISMOLOGY
45. A.S. CAKMAK (Editor) - STRUCTURES, UNDERGROUND STRUCTURES, DAMS, AND
STOCHASTIC METHODS
46. L. RÉTHÂTI - PROBABILISTIC SOLUTIONS IN GEOTECTONICS
47. B.M. DAS - THEORETICAL FOUNDATION ENGINEERING
48. W. DERSKI, R. IZBICKI, I. KISIEL AND Z. MROZ - ROCK AND SOIL MECHANICS
49. T. ARIMAN, M. HAMADA, A.C. SINGHAL, M.A. HAROUN AND A.S. CAKMAK (Editors) - RECENT
ADVANCES IN LIFELINE EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING
50. B.M. DAS - EARTH ANCHORS
51. K. THIEL - ROCK MECHANICS IN HYDROENGINEERING
52. W.F. CHEN AND X.L. LIU - LIMIT ANALYSIS IN SOIL MECHANICS
53. W.F. CHEN AND E. MIZUNO - NONLINEAR ANALYSIS IN SOIL MECHANICS
54. F.H. CHEN - FOUNDATIONS ON EXPANSIVE SOILS
55. J. VERFEL - ROCK GROUTING AND DIAPHRAGM WALL CONSTRUCTION
56. B.N. WHITTAKER AND D.J. REDDISH - SUBSIDENCE - Occurrence, Prediction and Control
57. E. NONVEILLER - GROUTING, THEORY AND PRACTICE
58. V. KOLÂR AND I. NÉMEC - MODELLING OF SOIL STRUCTURE INTERACTION
59A. R.S. SINHA (Editor) - UNDERGROUND STRUCTURES - Design and Instrumentation
59B. R.S. SINHA (Editor) - UNDERGROUND STRUCTURES - Design and Construction
60. R.L HARLAN, K.E. KOLM AND E.D. GUTENTAG - WATER-WELL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
61. I. KASDA - FINITE ELEMENT TECHNIQUES IN GROUNDWATER FLOW STUDIES
62. L. FIALOVSZKY (Editor) - SURVEYING INSTRUMENTS AND THEIR OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES
63. H. GIL - THE THEORY OF STRATA MECHANICS
64. H.K. GUPTA - RESERVOIR-INDUCED EARTHQUAKES
65. V.J. LUNARDINI - HEAT TRANSFER WITH FREEZING AND THAWING
66. T.S. NAGARAI - PRINCIPLES OF TESTING SOILS, ROCKS AND CONCRETE
67. E. JUHÂSOVÂ - SEISMIC EFFECTS ON STRUCTURES
68. J. FEDA - CREEP OF SOILS - And Related Phenomena
69. E. DULÂCSKA - SOIL SETTLEMENT EFFECTS ON BUILDINGS
70. D. MILOVlC - STRESSES AND DISPLACEMENTS FOR SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS
71. B.N. WHITTAKER, R.N. SINGH AND G. SUN - ROCK FRACTURE MECHANICS - Principles,
Design and Applications
72. M.A. MAHTAB AND P. GRASSO - GEOMECHANICS PRINCIPLES IN THE DESIGN OF TUNNELS AND
CAVERNS IN ROCK
73. R.N. YONG, A.M.O. MOHAMED AND B.P. WARKENTIN - PRINCIPLES OF CONTAMINANT
TRANSPORT IN SOILS
74. H. BURGER (Editor) - OPTIONS FOR TUNNELING 1993
75. S. HANSBO - FOUNDATION ENGINEERING
ELSEVIER SCIENCE B.V.
Sara Burgerhartstraat 25
P.O. Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublIcatlon Data
Pusch, Rolana.
Waste disposal in rock / R. Pusch.
p. cm. — (Developments m geotechnical engineering ; 76)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-444-89449-7
1. Radioactive waste disposal in the ground. 2. Environmental
geotechno 1 ogy. 3. Rock mechanics. I. Title. II. Series.
TD898.2.P87 1994
628. 4'4566—dc20 93-4819*
CIP
ISBN: 0-444-89449-7
© 1994 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
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Printed in The Netherlands
Foreword
Early 1978 the author - at that time professor in soil mechanics at the University of Luleâ
with a background in rock mechanics, geology and structural design of industrial plants -
became engaged in the work that had just been initiated by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and
Waste Management Co (SKB), Stockholm, for development of a technical solution of the
problem of safe disposal of radioactive waste from the Swedish nuclear reactors. This enga
gement has continued through the years and the combined efforts of SKB and its consultants,
catalyzed by governmental authorities, has resulted in a successively improved understanding
of the long-term performance of repositories for radioactive waste with metal waste contai
ners and clay seals as major engineered barriers to radionuclide escape to the biosphere.
Several candidate concepts for disposal of highly radioactive burnt-out fuel from the Swedish
nuclear reactors have evolved from this work and a repository for disposal of low- and
medium level radioactive waste constructed at Forsmark in Sweden with the author being
responsible for the clay-based barriers.
Around 1980 the international Stripa Project - an autonomous OECD activity for developing
and testing techniques for isolating highly radioactive waste - was started with Canada, Fin
land, France, Great Britain, Japan, Sweden and USA as member nations. The project, which
was headed by SKB, comprised geophysical, geochemical and geohydrological studies and a
number of field experiments with clay materials for shielding simulated highly radioactive
waste. The latter experiments, for which the author was responsible as principal investigator,
also included rock sealing and plug construction and testing.
The experience from the comprehensive SKB research and the Stripa Project work on clay-
based engineered barriers and rock performance is huge but reporting has mainly been in
internal technical reports to which access is limited. Since information from the two activities
is expected to be of interest to a wide group of organizations and authorities that deal with
disposal of hazardeous and particularly radioactive waste, as well as to consultants and cons-
ttuction companies and also university students interested in environmental protection, the
reason for writing this book has been to present both fundamental principles of the behavior
of repository barriers as they have evolved in the SKB research work, and practically useful
information from the Stripa tests. The title of the book indicates that disposal of all sorts of
hazardeous waste will be treated but the reader will find that most of the examples refer to
radioactive waste, which is explained both by the fact that the author's work has been focused
Waste Disposal in Rock
viii Foreword
on such waste and by the belief of the author and a number of his colleagues that the same
techniques can be used for isolation of radioactive and other hazardeous waste, like toxic che
mical waste although they have not yet been utilized.
The aim has been to put together a sort of scientifc will comprising a synthesis and presenta
tion of major current ideas and of the most important results and findings evolved in the work
in which the author and his collaborators at the company Clay Technology AB, Lund, Swe
den, have been involved, rather than to give a complete state-of-art overview of waste dispo
sal in general. The reader will therefore find that most references carry the author's and his
near colleagues' names.
The author has refrained from loading the text with mathematics and the reader will not even
find any deductions of the few equations that show up since the purpose has been to give the
reader an idea of what techniques, design and construction principles that can be used in the
establishment of deeply located waste repositories rather than to use up the space with the
theoretical background that is accessible through the references referred to.
The author wants to underline that the statements given are the author's, which are not neces
sarily in line with the opinion of any organization involved in the matter in Sweden or
elsewhere. Also, the book should be considered as an interim document since much work is
going on internationally and future research may change the views.
Waste Disposal in Rock
Legend and abbrevia
tions
The book contains a number of notations, symbols, and constants as well as abbreviations,
which are compiled in this chapter.
LEGEND
Latin letters
a, b, c, distances, dimensions, μπι, mm, cm, dm, m, km
A, cross section area
c, cohesion, MPa; concentration, ppm, g/1
C, heat capacity, Ws/kg,K
CEC, cation exchange capacity, mE/100 g solid material
d, grain and particle size; fracture aperture, μπι, mm; days
D, diffusion coefficient, m~/s, m~/a (square meters per annum, i.e. year)
D, apparent diffusion coef ficient, m~/s
a
D, effective diffusion coef ficient, irr/s
e
D, coefficient of diffusive water transport, nr7s
w
e, base of natural logarithms; void ratio (ratio of volume of voids and volume of solid mass)
E, (Young's) modulus of elasticity, MPa, GPa
g, earth acceleration, m/s2
Waste Disposal in Rock
xvi Legend and abbreviations
G, shear modulus, MPa, GPa
Gy, Gray, adsorbed radiation energy, J/kg
i, hydraulic gradient
JCOH, joint cohesion, kPa, MPa
JDIL, joint dilation angle, degrees
JFRIC, joint friction coefficient
JKN, joint normal stiffness, MPa/m, GPa/m
JKS, joint shear stiffness, MPa/m, GPa/m
JTEN, joint tensile strength, kPa, MPa
K, hydraulic conductivity, m/s
m, grout viscosity parameter, Pas
M, magnitude of earthquakes on the Richter scale
n, porosity (ratio of volume of voids and total volume); constant
N, migration rate, m/s
p, total pressure, bar, kPa, MPa
p, swelling pressure, kPa, MPa
s
q, flux, water flow, 1/irT, ml/s, m/s; deviator stress, kPa, MPa
r, radius
S, Sievert, radiation dose,
t, time, s (seconds), min (minutes), h (hours), d (days), a (annum), y (years)
t t, contants in creep equations
G r
T, temperature, °C, K; time
Waste Disposal in Rock
Legend and abbreviations xvii
u, porewater pressure, kPa, MPa; flow rate m/s
v, Q, velocity, flow rate, m/s
w, water content (ratio of mass of water and solid mass), %
w/c, water/cement (mass) ratio for cement
w, liquid limit (ratio of mass of water and solid mass at certain defined consistency) %
L
W, fracture aperture
x, y, coordinates
Â, Angstrom unit, 10"8 cm
Greek symbols
a, angle; radiation; creep parameter
β, angle
ô, settlement, mm, cm
φ, friction angle, degrees
γ, angle, angular strain
γ, creep rate, s"1
λ, heat conductivity, W/m,K
p, bulk density, (ratio of mass and total volume), g/cm3, t/m3
pj, dry density (ratio of solid mass and total volume), g/cm3, t/m3
p density at complete water saturation (ratio of mass of water + solid mass and total
s
volume), g/cm3, t/m3
p, density of water, g/cm3, t/m3
w
η, viscosity, Ns/m2
Waste Disposal in Rock
xviii Legend and abbreviations
ν, Poisson's ratio
σ, σ, normal stress, Pa, kPa, MPa
η
Oj, major principal stress, kPa, MPa
03, minor principal stress, kPa, MPa
o, σ, minimum and maximum (primary) horizontal total stress, kPa, MPa
h Η
σ, vertical total stress, kPa, MPa
ν
σ', effective stress ("grain pressure"), kPa, MPa
τ, shear stress, Pa, kPa, MPa
ABBREVIATIONS:
Organizations:
AECL, Atomic Energy Company of Canada Ltd
CEA, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, France
ENRESA, Empreca Nacional de Residuos Radioactivos S.A., Spain
IAEA, International Atomic Energy Agency
ICRP, International Committee for Radiation Protection
NAGRA, Nationale Genossenschaft fur die Lagerung Radioaktiver Abfàlle, Switzerland
NEDRA, Scientific Industrial Company on Superdeep Drilling and Comprehensive Investi
gation of the Earth's Interior, Russia
OECD, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
SKB, Swedish Nuclear Fuel & Waste Management Co, Sweden
TVO, Teollisuuden Voima Oy, Finland
VTT, Technical Research Center of Finland
Waste Disposal in Rock
