Development of a migration test from the perspective of characterizing stable radionuclides diffusion, through cementitious materials

Abstract

The objective is to modify the conventional migration test from the perspective of assessing the transfer parameters of radionuclides, in cementitious materials through their stable isotopes. The French standard procedure designed for assessing chloride ions diffusivities in cementitious materials has been adjusted: (i) the diffusing species concentration has been reduced to eventually observe surface charges effect and (ii) the migration setup is performed without whole-cell solution renewing to get a continuous current and the downstream chloride evolutions. The specificity of this method aims at analyzing the evolution of the current response and the diffusing species concentration in downstream acquired during the whole experiment. This paper shows that the migration test measurements provide relevant results with low chloride concentrations such as 50 mol/m³. The sensibility of the methodology was investigated by carrying out migration tests, on Hydrated Cement Pastes with various W/C ratios.

Keywords:

• Migration
• radionuclides
• chloride
• cementitious materials
• optimised procedure

Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge Andra (French national agency for radwaste management), which funded this research and the technical support of LaSIE Laboratory: Jean-Francois Meusnier (building migration cells) and Anthony Gélicus (chromatography assistance).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.