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Energy Resources and Carbon Management

Nuclear Energy and Waste

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  • Highlights
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Highlights
Projects

The mission of LBNL’s Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Waste Program is to perform fundamental and applied earth-sciences-related research concerning the safe, secure, and responsible use of nuclear energy, mostly focused on the safe long-term geological disposal of used nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste.

Program Overview

The Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Waste Program has been established within the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area’s Energy Resources Program Area of LBNL. The research activities are largely supported by the U.S. DOE Office of Nuclear Energy and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with additional funding coming from a variety of domestic and international sponsors. Many activities reside within DOE’s Spent Fuel & Waste Science and Technology (SFWST) Campaign, which was formerly called  Used Fuel Disposition (UFD) Campaign. The SFWST research addresses the need for secure disposal of the high-level radioactive waste that has been produced from nuclear power generation (and weapons production) across the world.

Berkeley Lab scientists made key contributions to the research and licensing activities aimed at the investigations of the deep geological disposal of nuclear waste in unsaturated tuff formation at the proposed Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. Berkeley Lab scientists are currently leading research and technology development to enable long-term radioactive waste disposal in other host-rock environments, such as argillite/shale, salt rock, and crystalline rock, and alternative repository designs.

The research is focused on studies of the complex coupled subsurface processes–thermal, hydrological, mechanical, and chemical (THMC), which will be triggered by perturbations from the repository construction, engineered barrier emplacement, and waste disposal. Advanced numerical modeling methods for evaluating and predicting these coupled processes are being developed and tested against experiments conducted at multiple laboratory and field scales, from micro-scale imaging of clay swelling and clay rock damage in laboratory settings to large in situ experiments conducted in Underground Research Laboratories (URLs). THMC studies are critical for the evaluation of the potential long-term impacts on repository site safety. For example, temperature rise from radioactive decay may trigger an increase in pore pressure , mechanical deformations, and chemical reactions, possibly causing rock damage and mineralogical changes, which could strongly affect radionuclide transport. Without the ability to predict the long-term consequences of these early-stage subsurface perturbations, it is difficult to assess whether natural and engineered barriers would provide safe disposal options over thousands to millions of years.

Berkeley researchers are heavily engaged in international collaborations, such as the DECOVALEX Project and the Mont Terri Partnership in Switzerland.

 

Project Highlights

Spent Fuel & Waste Science and Technology (SFWST)

Spent Fuel & Waste Science and Technology (SFWST) Campaign (formerly called  Used Fuel Disposition (UFD) Campaign) was initiated in 2009.  Its mission is “To identify alternatives and conduct scientific research and technology development to enable storage, transportation and disposal of used nuclear fuel and wastes generated by existing and future nuclear fuel cycles.” In disposal R&D, ‘activities continue to further the understanding of long-term performance of disposal systems in three main geologic rock types: clay/shale, salt, and crystalline rock. These activities include collaborations with international partners to leverage and integrate applicable R&D being conducted by other countries into the U.S. disposal R&D portfolio. Evaluations will be completed to determine the feasibility of directly disposing existing single (storage only) and dual purpose (storage and transportation) spent fuel canisters in a mined repository.” Research work in LBNL’s NE&NW program is funded mostly by SFWST, and includes a wide variety of research topics, ranging from fundamental understanding of the coupled processes at pore-scale to coupled thermal, hydrological, mechanical and chemical (THMC) modeling of in-situ repositories in  argillite, crystalline and salt formations.. While advancing scientific understanding of underground processes related to long-term nuclear waste disposal, we are also developing cutting-edge experimental and modeling tools and methodologies.

 

The Andra’s Underground Research Laboratory, France—Credit: ©Andra / Dominique Piot.

International Collaborations (SFWD)

For SFWST, international collaboration is a beneficial and cost-effective strategy with regards to multiple disposal options and different geologic environments. While the U.S. disposal program focused solely on Yucca Mountain tuff as host rock over the past decades, several international programs have made significant progress in the characterization and performance evaluation of other geologic repository options, most of which are very different from the Yucca Mountain in design and host rock characteristics. Because Yucca Mountain was so unique (e.g., no backfill, unsaturated densely fractured tuff), areas of direct collaboration with international disposal programs were quite limited during that time.

The decision by the U.S. Department of Energy to no longer pursue the disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent fuel at Yucca Mountain has shifted DOE’s interest to disposal options and geologic environments similar to those being investigated by nuclear waste disposal programs in other nations. Much can be gained by close collaboration with these programs, including access to valuable experience and data collected over recent decades at several operating underground research laboratories (URLs). Particularly,  the UFD scientists have been working closely with international scientists on concrete research projects relevant to both sides — opportunities for active international collaboration (.pdf).Such active collaboration has provided direct access to information, data, and expertise on various disposal options and geologic environments that have been collected over the past decades. Many international programs have  URLs in clay/shale, granite, and salt environments, in which relevant field experiments have been and are being conducted.

To advance collaboration, Dr. Jens Birkholzer of LBNL serves as UFD’s Technical Lead for International Activities, and advises UFD on international opportunities that complement ongoing R&D within the campaign, and helps identify those activities that provide the greatest potential for substantive technical advances.

 

Event Highlights

Worldwide Review Continents-MapWorkshop on the Fifth Worldwide Review “Challenging Issues in Deep Geologic Disposal of Nuclear Wastes”

To facilitate the sharing of knowledge about the isolation of nuclear waste in various rock types—as well as any other information related to nuclear waste isolation—in 1991, Paul Witherspoon initiated publication of a series of worldwide reviews describing the progress made by various countries around the world in their nuclear waste isolation programs. Thes reviews were published in conjunction with workshops, including the most recent 2016 Worldwide Review.  LBNL hosted the Fifth Worldwide Review (WWR-5) Workshop on nuclear waste disposal in geological formations on May 25-26, 2016. The overall objective of the WWR-5 Workshop was to summarize the experience and lessons learned documented in the Fifth Worldwide Review Report, and to establish future cooperation/collaboration between the participating countries pursuing geological disposal programs.  The Workshop included oral presentations of the countries, followed by group discussions of the materials. The materials of the group discussions were included in the final edition of the Fifth Worldwide Review report (see all Worldwide Review reports). In particular, the presentations at the WWR-5 Workshop included the following types of information: the current status of the deep geological repository programs for high nuclear waste and low- and intermediate nuclear waste and in each of the countries, concepts of siting and radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel management in different countries (with the emphasis of nuclear waste disposal under different climatic conditions and different geological formations), progress in repository site selection and site characterization, technology development, buffer/backfill materials studies and testing, support activities, programs, and projects, international cooperation, and future plans, as well as regulatory issues and transboundary problems. (See: Fifth Worldwide Review Report Online; Fifth Worldwide Review Workshop; OSTI/Complete WWR-5 Report; LBNL Blog (2017))

DECOVALEX 2019 Symposium

Coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes in geological systems are critically important to the performance and safety assessment of geologic disposal systems for radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. Understanding of such processes is also essential for a number of other subsurface engineering processes, including mining, geothermal exploration, geological carbon sequestration, energy storage, and oil and gas production. The DECOVALEX 2019 Symposium on Coupled Processes in Radioactive Waste Disposal and Subsurface Engineering Applications invites you to the beautiful city of Brugg, Switzerland, November 4-5, 2019. Located about 28 kilometers from Zürich, Brugg is known for its historic center developed along a narrow gorge of the river Aare. This open symposium will feature internationally recognized keynote speakers and researchers focusing on coupled processes, including computational methods, lab experiments, and in situ tests. The symposium will also provide exciting insights from the current phase of the DECOVALEX project, an international collaboration for advancing the understanding of coupled THMC processes in a geological system.

 

Featured Projects

Project

Argillite Disposal R&D

Shale and argillite geological formations have been considered as potential host rocks for geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) throughout the world because of their low permeability, low diffusion coefficient, high retention capacity for radionuclides, and capability to self-seal fractures.

Project

Crystalline Disposal R&D

The objective of LBNL's work in Crystalline Disposal R&D focuses on advancing our understanding of long-term disposal of spent fuel in crystalline rocks and to develop necessary experimental and computational capabilities to evaluate various disposal concepts in such media.

Project

Direct Disposal of Dual Purpose Canister R&D

Coupled THM numerical modeling is conducted to study thermal management associated with geologic disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in large dual-purpose canisters (DPCs). DPCs, are containers designed for SNF storage and transportation and if determined to be feasible for permanent geological disposal could provide a cost effective disposal solution....

Project

Engineered Barrier System R&D

The objective of EBS Disposal R&D is to address the technical elements necessary to evaluate EBS design concepts specific to the select host media. Emphasis includes analysis and study of thermal, mechanical, and chemical processes that influence the performance of EBS and developing modeling capability for reliable assessment of these processes and ultimately supporting the Generic Disposal System Analysis (GDSA) model with detailed coupled THMC process models.

Project

Generic Disposal R&D

The objective of this activity is to develop a methodology and toolsets for integrating complex, coupled models (such as THMC or THC) into the GDSA model for evaluating disposal system performance for nuclear waste. Because the GDSA model is designed for the entire repository with a thousand emplacement tunnels, a systematic methodology is needed on how to simplify some coupled processes/parameters.

Figure 1
Project

International Collaborations (SFWD)

Since 2012, in an effort coordinated by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition (SFWD) Campaign has advanced active collaboration with several international geologic disposal programs in Europe and Asia. Such collaboration allows the SFWD Campaign to benefit from a deep knowledge base in regards to alternative repository environments developed over decades, and to utilize international investments in research facilities (such as underground research laboratory testing and modeling), saving millions of R&D dollars that have been and are being provided by other countries.

Project

Salt Disposal R&D

In the context of nuclear waste disposal, rock salt has several favorable features, including near-zero permeability in the undisturbed state, very low porosity, and relative high thermal conductivity as compared to other potential host rock alternatives. Moreover, rock salt creeps under deviatoric stresses and temperature changes, and has the capability to heal fractures under favorable stress state.

Project

Spent Fuel & Waste Science and Technology (SFWST)

Research in Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Waste Program are mostly funded by DOE’s Spent Fuel & Waste Science and Technology (SFWST) Campaign. In support of Campaign’s mission, Berkeley Lab scientists are now leading research and technology development to enable long-term waste disposal in other host-rock environments, such as shale, salt rock, and crystalline rock, and alternative repository designs.

Program Contacts

LianGe Zheng
Staff Scientist
Nuclear Energy and Waste Program Head

Elizabeth (Lizz) Mahoney
Senior Administrator to the Division Director

News & Events

National Labs Support Safe Nuclear Waste Disposal by Studying Safety Material for Underground Sites

January 19, 2022

When it comes to nuclear power, the uranium at the heart of fuel rods is also this power source’s Achilles’ heel.  When power plants shut down or the fuel rods in nuclear reactors become inefficient, the high-level nuclear waste resulting from the spent fuel created from running these plants could stay radioactive for thousands of years.…

Algorithm Provides Early Warning System for Tracking Groundwater Contamination

August 13, 2018

Groundwater contamination is increasingly recognized as a widespread environmental problem. The most important course of action often involves long-term monitoring. But what is the most cost-effective way to monitor when the contaminant plumes are large, complex, and long-term, or an unexpected event such as a storm could cause sudden changes in contaminant levels that may…

EESA Scientists Leverage Machine Learning to Connect Measurements of Shale Across Scales

May 2, 2018

  EESA Scientists were able to use the new synchrotron Infrared Nano Spectroscopy (SINS) capability at Advanced Light Source. Above: Diagrams of the setup of (a) the Germanium-hemisphere enhanced attenuated total reflection (Ge micro-ATR) and (b) the resonance enhanced SINS.   Berkeley Lab scientists have identified a way to use machine learning to connect fine-…

Berkeley Lab Scientists Go Deep Underground to Study Rock Fractures in Geothermal Environments

March 5, 2018

  In February EESA Staff Scientist Tim Kneafsey helped escort leadership from the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy on a journey 4,850 feet below the ground. They toured Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), an old South Dakota gold mine turned testing ground for studying how the process of extracting heat from rocks…

New EESA Study Indicates Greater Capacity for Carbon Storage in the Subsurface

February 6, 2018

New research from the Energy Geosciences Division at Berkeley Lab shows that carbon dioxide can penetrate the inner layers of some non-swelling clay minerals which make up the dominant clays in the Earth’s deep subsurface. Results of the work performed at the Center for Nanoscale Controls on Geologic CO2 (NCGC) and the national lab’s Molecular Foundry could help inform practices intended to help limit carbon dioxide emissions, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

Berkeley Lab Experts Helping Test Novel Monitoring Solutions for Unconventional Oil Recovery with Reduced Environmental Footprint

January 25, 2018

Scientists from the Energy Geosciences Division at Berkeley Lab are part of a research team led by Texas A&M University that is working to develop a new field laboratory in the hydrocarbon-producing geological formation known as Eagle Ford Shale. Their work is focused on increased recovery from previously fractured wells that were left behind because of low production, and has the potential to foster continued growth in U.S. oil production, but with a much lower environmental footprint.

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