Mathematical modelling of an array of nuclear waste containers

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to give a mathematical model describing the global be haviour of the nuclear waste disposal process.The physical situation can be described as an array made of high number of alveoles inside of a low permeable layer (e.g. clay) included between two layers with slightly higher permeability (e.g. limestone). Radioactive elements are leaking from their containers over a period of time ]0,t_m[ . In a porous media (clay) there is a dilution effect (similar to diffusion) and convection due to some underground water flow. The real physical situation is simplified by replacing 5 alveoles by one macro alveole and by considering the convection velocity as a given field. These simplifications seam to be unimportant for understanding the global effects. The typical size of such macro alveole is of order : 100 m width, 1000 m length, 5 m hight. The distance between two alveoles is also of order 100 m. The size of law permeable layer is of order 150 m hight, and 3000 length. Since alveoles are small compared to the size of layer and their number is large direct numerical simulations using the {\em microscopic} model is unrealistic. On the other hand the ratio between domain length and the length of one alveole is small, of order 1/30, and allows an asymptotic study with respect to that small parameter, denoted by \epsilon, using the method of homogenization and boundary layers.