Study on the Themal Conductivity of Compacted Buffer/Backfill Materials

The thermal property is one of the key properties for the design of the high-level radioactive waste (HLW) repository. In this study, the thermal properties transient automatic tester (HPP-F) is uesd to study the thermal conductivity of multiphase composite buffer/backfill material including the type B-Z and B-Z-P (Here B、Z、P represents bentonite、zeolite and pyrite respectively,the same as in the following.) in different dry density and moisture conditions. The results show that for the same moisture content (dry density), thermal conductivity of specimens increases as the dry density (moisture content) increases. As a result, the type B-Z-P which is highly compacted of 1.8 g/cm3 in dry density and 17.65% in moisture content performs well, it meets the requirements of the IAEA and is easy to be compacted ,so it can be recommend as a alternative material of high level radioactive waste disposal repository buffer/backfilling materials.