Description

The migration of any repository-derived contaminants in water through the surface soil and overburden.

Category

Categorisation as a Feature, Event and/or Process.

  • Features are physical components of the disposal system and environment being assessed. Examples include waste packaging, backfill, surface soils. Features typically interact with one another via processes and in some cases events.
  • Events are dynamic interactions among features that occur over time periods that are short compared to the safety assessment timeframe such as a gas explosion or meteorite impact.
  • "Processes" are issues or dynamic interactions among features that generally occur over a significant proportion of the safety assessment timeframe and may occur over the whole of this timeframe. Events and processes may be coupled to one another (i.e. may influence one another).

The classification of a FEP as an event or process depends upon the assessment context, because the classification is undertaken with reference to an assessment timeframe. In this generic IFEP List, many IFEPs are classified as both Events and Processes; users will need to decide which of these classifications is relevant to their context and its timeframes.

  • Process

Relevance to Performance and Safety

The “Relevance to Performance and Safety” field contains an explanation of how the IFEP might influence the performance and safety of the disposal system under consideration through its impact on the evolution of the repository system and on the release, migration and/or uptake of repository-derived contaminants.

Migration of any repository-derived contaminants by advection, diffusion and dispersion in soil pore water will be affected by characteristics such as soil texture, mineralogy, porewater pH and composition. Contaminants may also move through the soil profile via processes such as infiltration and interflow, and across the soil via surface runoff.

2000 List

A reference to the related FEP(s) within the 2000 NEA IFEP List.

3.2.07

Related References

  • Details
    Wheater HS, Bell JNB, Butler AP, Jackson BM, Ciciani L, Ashworth DJ and Shaw GG (), Biosphere Implications of Deep Disposal of Nuclear Waste: The Upwards Migration of Radionuclides in Vegetated Soils, Series on Environmental Science and Management: Volume 5, Imperial College Press, ISBN: 978-1-86094-743-8, http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/P482#t=toc, 30 June 2007