A double-layered model for near-field temperature in a nuclear waste repository

Abstract

Abstract The temperature distribution is an important issue for the design and safety assessment of the repository for disposing high-level radioactive nuclear waste (HLRW). In order to analyze the heat conduction property near the canister containing HLRW, in this paper two kinds of double-layered model are established respectively for the unit cell scale and repository scale, and the corresponding analytical solutions are obtained in terms of the heat conduction equations for the buffer layer and surrounding rock by the separate variable method. Then, the proposed analytical solutions are verified by checking against the existing ones for a special case in the literature. Finally, a parametric study is performed to investigate the temperature behavior in the buffer layer and surrounding rock with different parameters.