Modelling groundwater contamination above a nuclear waste repository at Gorleben, Germany

The candidate repository for high-level nuclear waste in the Gorleben salt dome, Germany, is expected to host 8,550 tonnes of uranium in burnt fuel. It has been proposed that 5,440 waste containers be deposited at a depth of about 800 m. There is 260–280 m of siliciclastic cover sediments above the proposed repository. The potential groundwater contamination in the siliciclastic aquifer is simulated with the TOUGHREACT and TOUGH2-MP codes for a three-dimensional model with 290,435 elements. Two deterministic cases are simulated. The single-phase case considers the transport of radionuclides in the liquid phase only. The two-phase case accounts for hydrogen gas generated by the corrosion of waste containers and release of gaseous C-14. The gas release via a backfilled shaft is assumed to be steady (non-explosive). The simulation period is 2,000,000 years for the single-phase case and 7,000 years for the two-phase case. Only the radioactive dose in the two-phase case is higher than the regulatory limit (0.1 mSv/a).