Uranium deposits: Natural analogues for radioactive waste repositories

铀矿床：放射性废物储存库的天然类似物

• 批准号: 556702-2020
• 负责人: Fayek, Mostafa
• 金额: $ 6.35万
• 依托单位: University of Manitoba
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=706381
• 关键词: Uranium; deposits; Natural; analogues; radioactive

Worldwide, there will be ~500 nuclear reactors operating by 2030, which will result in a 66% increase in global nuclear power generation. To remain at the forefront of an ever-competitive mining and energy exploration market, Canada and its industries need to adopt a leadership position in the development of strategies for nuclear waste disposal. Most countries with used nuclear fuel (UNF) agree that the safest way is to dispose of this waste in a deep geological repository (DGR) and that safe disposal of high-level nuclear waste (HLNW) requires containment in the DGR for at least 1 million years. One of the more difficult concepts involved in the disposal of UNF in DGRs are the very long time frames (e.g., 1 million years) required by the long-term safety assessment models. This is well beyond anything that can be considered in an experimental setting. Uranium deposits can provide important information on the performance of radioactive waste forms and radioactive waste repositories because uraninite (UO2+X), the most abundant uranium-bearing mineral in most uranium deposits, is similar in many ways to the UO2 in UNF. We propose to study the geological environments that host specific deposits, which can serve as important natural laboratories in which to study uranium and other radionuclides over very large spatial (nanometers to kilometers) and temporal scales (thousands to millions of years). The proposed research brings together geoscientists from the University of Manitoba, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and Cameco Corp. This work will provide training for three PhD students and several undergraduate research assistants. The major potential outcome and impact of this partnership will be to show that natural analogues (e.g., uranium deposits) can complement numerical modeling data for DGR performance. We will use quantitative data from systems that formed over geological time-scales, and that have remained stable for millions to billions of years, thus providing more confidence in the safety case for the DGR concept.

到 2030 年，全球将有约 500 座核反应堆在运行，这将导致全球核发电量增加 66%。为了在竞争日益激烈的采矿和能源勘探市场中保持领先地位，加拿大及其行业需要在制定核废料处置战略方面占据领导地位。 大多数拥有废旧核燃料的国家 (UNF) 一致认为，最安全的方法是将这些废物处置在深层地质处置库 (DGR) 中，并且安全处置高放核废物 (HLNW) 需要在 DGR 中收容至少 1 年。万年。 处置 DGR 中的 UNF 涉及的更困难的概念之一是长期安全评估模型所需的很长的时间范围（例如 100 万年）。这远远超出了实验环境中可以考虑的任何事情。铀矿床可以提供有关放射性废物形态和放射性废物储存库性能的重要信息，因为铀矿 (UO2+X) 是大多数铀矿床中最丰富的含铀矿物，在许多方面与 UNF 中的 UO2 相似。我们建议研究特定矿床的地质环境，这些环境可以作为重要的自然实验室，在非常大的空间（纳米到公里）和时间尺度（数千到数百万年）内研究铀和其他放射性核素。拟议的研究汇集了来自马尼托巴大学、加拿大核安全委员会 (CNSC) 和 Cameco Corp 的地球科学家。这项工作将为三名博士生和几名本科生研究助理提供培训。 这种伙伴关系的主要潜在成果和影响将是表明天然类似物（例如铀矿床）可以补充 DGR 性能的数值模型数据。我们将使用在地质时间尺度上形成的系统的定量数据，这些数据在数百万至数十亿年中保持稳定，从而为 DGR 概念的安全案例提供更多信心。