Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-n9wrp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-22T02:22:50.923Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Transport of Uranium and Technetium Through The unsaturated Tuffs, Yucca Mountain, Nevada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2011

Gail A. Cederberg ,
L. Eric Greenwade  and
Bryan J. Travis
Gail A. Cederberg
Affiliation:
Earth and Space Sciences Division, MS F665, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545
L. Eric Greenwade
Affiliation:
Earth and Space Sciences Division, MS F665, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545
Bryan J. Travis
Affiliation:
Earth and Space Sciences Division, MS F665, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545
Get access

Abstract

An area containing unsaturated fractured tuffs at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is one of the potential sites for geologic storage of high-level radioactive waste. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 40 CFR 191 Regulation limits the cumulative releases of many radionuclides from the repository to the accessible environment for 10,000 years after disposal [I]. Numerical models can be used to determine if the EPA containment requirement is met.

In this paper a preliminary set of transport calculations for uranium and technetium is discussed. First, a foundation for the calculations, a comprehensive, referenced geochemical/geophysical model containing the current stratigraphic, petrologic, hydrogeologic, geochemical, and material data for the Yucca Mountain site was compiled. Second, the integrated transport of uranium and technetium from the repository to the water table was modeled. An expected-case flow scenario and a worse-case flow scenario were used in the calculations. The sorption of technetium was neglected in the worse-case scenario. Results show that in the case of uranium, the estimated transport was only moderately sensitive to the magnitude of the flow because sorption had a significant effect on the retardation. In the case of technetium, when sorption was neglected, the flow dominated the transport. The EPA contain- ment requirements were met for all cases. These preliminary calculations will be used as a basis to investigate the effects of physical and geochemi- cal processes on the long-term transport of radionuclides at Yucca Mountain.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 84: Symposium L – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management X , 1986 , 703
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, AH-FRL2870-3, Washington, DC, 1985.Google Scholar
2. Travis, B. J., LA-9667-MS, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 1984.Google Scholar
3. Kerrisk, J. F., LA-10414-MS, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 1985.Google Scholar
4. Greenwade, L. E. and Cederberg, G. A., NNWSI Milestone R343, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 1986.Google Scholar
5. Ortiz, T. S., Williams, R. L., Nimick, F. B., Whittet, B. C., and South, D. L., SAND84-1076, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, 1984.Google Scholar
6. Campbell, K., NNWSI Milestone 376, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 1986.Google Scholar
7. TUFF Data Base Product #CAL0104, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, 1986.Google Scholar
8. TUFF Data Base Product #5, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, 1986.Google Scholar
9. TUFF Data Base Product #4, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, 1986.Google Scholar
10. Travis, B. J., Hodson, S. W., Nuttall, H. E., Cook, T. L., and Rundberg, R. S., LA-UR-84-40, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 1984.Google Scholar
11. Montazer, P. and Wilson, W. E., Water-Resources Investigations Report 84-4345, U.S. Geological Survey, Lakewood, CO, 1984.Google Scholar
12. Roulon, J., Bodvarsson, G. S., and Montazer, P., LBL-20553, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 1986.Google Scholar
13. Thomas, K. W., NNWSI Milestone M313, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 1986.Google Scholar
14. Broxton, D. E., presented at the International Symposium on Management of Hazardous Chemical Waste Sites, Winston-Salem, NC, 1985.Google Scholar
15. Broxton, D. E. (private communication).Google Scholar
16. Rundberg, R. S. (private communication).Google Scholar
17. Oversby, V. M. (private communication).Google Scholar
18. Greenwade, L. E., Cederberg, G. A., and Travis, B. J., NNWSI Milestone M325, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 1986.Google Scholar