Selection and Basic Properties of the Buffer Material for High-Level Radioactive Waste Repository in China

Radioactive wastes arising from a wide range of human activities are in many different physical and chemical forms, contaminated with varying radioactivity. Their common features are the potential hazard associated with their radioactivity and the need to manage them in such a way as to protect the human environment. The geological disposal is regarded as the most reasonable and effective way to safely disposing high-level radioactive wastes in the world. The conceptual model of geological disposal in China is based on a multi-barrier system that combines an isolating geological environment with an engineered barrier system. The buffer is one of the main engineered barriers for HLW repository. It is expected to maintain its low water permeability, self-sealing property, radio nuclides adsorption and retardation properties, thermal conductivity, chemical buffering property, canister supporting property, and stress buffering property over a long period of time. Bentonite is selected as the main content of buffer material that can satisfy the above requirements. The Gaomiaozi deposit is selected as the candidate supplier for China＇s buffer material of high level radioactive waste repository. This paper presents the geological features of the GMZ deposit and basic properties of the GMZ Na-bentonite. It is a super-large deposit with a high content of montmorillonite （about 75 %）, and GMZ-1, which is Na-bentonite produced from GMZ deposit is selected as the reference material for China＇s buffer material study.

Coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical process in buffer material and self-healing effects with joints

Within the multi-barrier system for high-level waste disposal,the technological gap formed by combined buffer material block becomes the weak part of buffer layer.In this paper,Gaomiaozi bentonite buffer material with technological gap was studied,the heat transfer induced by liquid water flow and water vapor was embedded into the energy conservation equation.Based on the Barcelona basic model,the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical model of unsaturated bentonite was established by analyzing the swelling process of bentonite block and the compression process of joint material.The China-Mock-up test was adopted to compare the numerical calculation results with the test results so as to verify the rationality of the proposed model.On this basis,the effect of joint self-healing on dry density,thermal conductivity and permeability coefficient of buffer material was further analyzed.The results show that,with bentonite hydrating and swelling,the joint material gradually increases in dry density,and exhibits comparatively uniform hydraulic and thermal conductivity properties as compacted bentonite block.As a result,the buffer material gradually shifts to homogenization due to the coordinated deformation.

Comparison of GaN/AlGaN/AlN/GaN HEMTs Grown on Sapphire with Fe-Modulation-Doped and Unintentionally Doped GaN Buffer:Material Growth and Device Fabrication

AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors （HEMTs） grown on Fe-modulation-doped （MD） and unintentionally doped （UID） GaN buffer layers are investigated and compared. Highly resistive GaN buffers （10^9Ω·cm） are induced by individual mechanisms for the electron traps＇ formation： the Fe MD buffer （sample A） and the UID buffer with high density of edge-type dislocations （7.24×10^9cm^-2, sample B）. The 300K Hall test indicates that the mobility of sample A with Fe doping （2503cm^2V^-1s^-1） is much higher than sample B （1926cm^2V^-1s^-1） due to the decreased scattering effect on the two-dimensional electron gas. HEMT devices are fabricated on the two samples and pulsed I–V measurements are conducted. Device A shows better gate pinch-off characteristics and a higher threshold voltage （-2.63V） compared with device B （-3.71V）. Lower gate leakage current ｜IGS｜ of device A （3.32×10^-7A） is present compared with that of device B （8.29×10^-7A）. When the off-state quiescent points Q_2 （V GQ2=-8V, V DQ2=0V） are on, V th hardly shifts for device A while device B shows ＋0.21V positive threshold voltage shift, resulting from the existence of electron traps associated with the dislocations in the UID-GaN buffer layer under the gate. Under pulsed I–V and transconductance G m–V GS measurement, the device with the Fe MD-doped buffer shows more potential in improving reliability upon off-state stress.

Hydro-mechanical behaviours of highly compacted sand-bentonite mixture

： This paper presents the results of laboratory testing on a heavily compacted sand-bentonite mixture. To measure the soil-water retention curve （SWRC） of the mixture over a large range of suction, a pressure plate apparatus and filter papers were used. The obtained SWRC shows that the measurements via the two methods consistently agree with each other. By using a suction-controlled oedometer for unsaturated soils, a series of one-dimensional compression tests were performed on the unsaturated compacted sand-bentonite mixture at different constant suctions. The testing results indicate that the yield stress increases and compression index decreases with the increase of imposed suction. The results also demonstrate that the mixture wetted to saturation and subsequently dried to a certain suction level has a lower yield stress than that wetted directly to the same suction.