The NEA has launched a new co-operative programme - the Sorption Project,
Phase II - with the objective of demonstrating the applicability of
chemical thermodynamic models to support the selection of sorption parameters
used in safety assessments of radioactive waste repositories.
The project is taking the form of a "benchmarking" exercise
for the different modelling approaches in use at the participating organisations.
The overall aim is to interpret selected, well-characterised datasets
for sorption by complex materials. By applying the various modelling
approaches in a systematic way to the same measured data, an evaluation
of the merits and limitations of the approaches will be possible and
recommendations on the use of these models can be made.
The Project was officially started with the first meeting of the Management
Board on 28 September, and the first meeting of the Technical Direction
Team on 28-29 September.
Further details
The technical direction of the Project is provided by a Technical Direction
Team, which consists of five international experts with experience of
sorption modelling and also an understanding of the requirements of
safety assessments of radioactive waste disposal systems.
The project will consider the modelling of a number
of systems relevant to safety assessment including:
A total project timescale of 24 months is envisaged, with an intermediate
milestone after the first six months. This milestone is considered important
to allow an assessment of the viability of the project based on existing
datasets. If there are insufficient datasets that are suitable for this
type of detailed modelling exercise, the project will be ended.
The following twelve organisations from ten Member countries are participating
in this project:
ANSTO, Australia;
NIRAS/ONDRAF, Belgium;
RAWRA, Czech Republic;
POSIVA, Finland;
ANDRA, France;
JNC, Japan;
CRIEPI, Japan;
ENRESA, Spain;
HSK, NAGRA & PSI, Switzerland (participating jointly);
BNFL, UK;
NIREX, UK; and
NRC, USA.