Development of scenario analysis and database for quantitative analysis of microbial effects on the repository performance

A scenario analysis was performed for microbial effect on the performance assessment (PA) of the high-level radioactive waste disposal system. Based on review of recent literature on PA and some results of our experiment, possible scenario of microbial effects on the Japanese high-level radioactive waste disposal system were analyzed. The result of the analysis shows that the microbial effect on groundwater evolution, which is caused by the microbial redox reaction, is one of the most important issues in assessing PA. The evolution not only affects radionuclide migration but also the life-time of metal overpack corrosion. To assess the microbial effect on groundwater evolution, a numerical estimation code is required, with reliable parameters for analysis of microbial activities used in the code. A biological parameter database has been developed to give the growth and metabolism of the six typical microbial groups to be used in the estimation code. For this purpose, about 573 data from 95 papers were examined to obtain effective data for disposal. The database is composed of significant data like specific growth rate, maximum growth rate, constant decay rate, and experimental condition for model assessment.