The Department of Energy has spent more than $7 billion and 24 years studying the geology of potential repository sites, but only four percent of that has been spent on transportation issues.
Groundwater beneath Yucca Mountain is the primary medium through which most radionuclides might move away from the potential repository.
Plugging of flow paths caused by mineral precipitation in fractures above the potential repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada could reduce the probability of water seeping into the repository.
After examining the heads and permeabilities obtained from the calibrated models, we present particle pathways from the potential repository that record differences in the predicted groundwater flow regime.
However, porewaters at the potential repository level may have a higher proportion of Holocene recharge due to the higher calculated infiltration rate in this region.
In this study we investigate, by means of numerical simulation, the transport of radioactive colloids under ambient conditions from the potential repository horizon to the water table.
A prediction of the seepage rate is particularly complicated for the potential repository site at Yucca Mountain, NV, which is located in a thick sequence of unsaturated, fractured tuffs.
The US Department of Energy DOEE) has been evaluating the unsaturated zone (UZ) at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as a potential repository site for high level nuclear waste.
The transport model simulates multiple species (typically 20 or more) with complex time-varying and spatially varying releases from the potential repository.
The delay of radionuclide movement in the geosphere is one aspect of the potential repository system that could limit public exposure to radioactive waste.
