Microstructure and micro/macro-diffusion behavior of tritium in bentonite

Diffusion of tritium water, HTO, in bentonite clay is investigated. The method provides a sequential procedure of microscopic characterizations of the clay by a confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM), the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and the micro-/macro-analysis by the homogenization analysis (HA) method in which the results of the microscope characterizations and the MD simulations are used. The diffusion properties of HTO calculated by HA agree with the experimental data. Then we simulate the diffusion behavior of HTO in the barrier system of high-level radioactive waste management.