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A Review of the Swedish Kbs-Ii Plan for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel
A Review of the Swedish KbsIi Plan for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel Author:National Research Council (U. S.) Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IV. ADEQUACY OF DATA ON GEOLOGY AND HYDROGEOCHEMISTRY A key element in the disposal system proposed in the KBS-II Plan is the postulate that repository sites ... more »can be located and developed in geologically stable areas of Sweden in which physical, hydrological, and chemical conditions are such that copper canisters enclosed in a bentonite overpack will remain unbreached for periods of time measurable in hundreds of thousands or more than a million years. To support this postulate, data are needed to show that repository sites of adequate size can be found where the bedrock is tectonically stable, where it will be little affected by possible renewed glaciation, where movement of groundwater is slow, and where the rate of attack by groundwater on copper is within permissible limits. The adequacy of the data in the KBS-II report and the technical documents pertinent to those questions are considered in this section. 1. Can bodies of granitic rock be found in Sweden of sufficient size and sufficiently low permeability to serve as repository sites? The total area of the tunnel system necessary to accommodate the 7,000 canisters of the conceptualized waste repository is slightly more than 1 km2. The Swedish Geological Survey, in preparation for the KBS-I report, was assigned the task of locating such an area (or areas) where the bedrock at a depth of about 500 m would have the necessary strength to maintain openings and the necessary low permeability to ensure that groundwater movement would be slow. Site investigation was hampered by the reluctance of many property owners to permit the necessary geologic mapping and the work of the drilling crews, but eventually five sites were located that seemed worthy of detailed study. One of the five was quickly eliminated because the...« less