A Sensitivity Study of Brine Transport into a Borehole Containing a Commercial High-Level Waste Canister

Emplacement of commercial high-level radioactive waste in an underground repository in salt may result in the transport of brine from the rock salt to the metal surfaces of the waste package. The input parameters necessary to examine this phenomena are not precisely known; however, ranges in the input parameters can be estimated. Using a coupled finite element model for brine transport, the input parameters are treated as stochastic quantities to obtain the range in brine quantities that may come in contact with the waste package. The range in brine quantities is broad, but a major portion of the range can be attributed to the range in only three input quantities.