Hydraulic Conductivity of Geosynthetic Clay Liners to Low-Level Radioactive Waste Leachate
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 8
Abstract
Hydraulic conductivity was evaluated for eight commercially available geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) permeated with leachate characteristic of low-level radioactive waste (LLW) disposal facilities operated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Two of the GCLs (CS and GS) contained conventional sodium bentonite (Na-B). The others contained a bentonite–polymer mixture (CPL, CPH, GPL1, GPL2, and GPH) or bentonite–polymer composite (BPC). All GCLs (except GPL2 and GPH) were permeated directly with two synthetic LLW leachates that are essentially identical, except one has no radionuclides (nonradioactive synthetic leachate, or NSL) and the other has radionuclides (radioactive synthetic leachate, or RSL). Hydraulic conductivities to RSL and NSL were identical. For the CS and GS GCLs, the hydraulic conductivity gradually increased by a factor of 5–25 because divalent cations in the leachate replaced native sodium cations bound to the bentonite. The CPL, GPL1, and GPL2 GCLs with low polymer loading (1.2–3.3%) had hydraulic conductivities similar to the conventional GCLs. In contrast, hydraulic conductivity of the CPH, GPH, and BPC GCLs with high polymer loading () to RSL or NSL was comparable to, or lower than, the hydraulic conductivity to deionized water. Permeation with leachate reduced the swell index of the bentonite in all of the GCLs. A conceptual model featuring pore blocking by polymer hydrogel is proposed to explain why the hydraulic conductivity of bentonite–polymer GCLs to LLW leachates remains low even though the leachate inhibits bentonite swelling.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support for this study was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy under Cooperative Agreement Number DE-FC01-06EW07053 (Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation III or CRESP). Findings presented in this paper are those of the authors and are not necessarily consistent with policies or opinions of the U.S. Department of Energy.
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Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 8 • August 2016
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This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
History
Received: Sep 8, 2015
Accepted: Jan 8, 2016
Published online: Apr 25, 2016
Published in print: Aug 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Sep 25, 2016
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