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Title: CASCADER: An M-chain gas-phase radionuclide transport and fate model

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6882190

Chemicals and radionuclides move either in the gas-phase, liquid-phase, or both phases in soils. They may be acted upon by either biological or abiotic processes through advection and diffusion. Furthermore, parent and daughter radionuclides may decay as they are transported in the soil. CASCADER is a gas-phase, one-space dimensional transport and fate model for M-chain radionuclides in very dry homogeneous or heterogeneous soil. This model contains barometric pressure-induced advection and diffusion together with linear irreversible and linear reversible sorption for each radionuclide. The advection velocity is derived from an embedded air-pumping submodel. The air-pumping submodel is based on an assumption of isothermal conditions, which is driven by barometric pressure. CASCADER allows the concentration of source radionuclides to decay via the classical Bateman chain of simple, first-order kinetic processes. The transported radionuclides also decay via first-order processes while in the soil. A mass conserving, flux-type inlet and exit set of boundary conditions are used. The user must supply the initial distribution for the parent radionuclide in the soil. The initial daughter distribution is found using equilibrium rules. The model is user friendly as it uses a prompt-driven, free-form input. The code is ANSI standard Fortran 77.

Research Organization:
Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Co., Inc., Las Vegas, NV (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC08-89NV10630
OSTI ID:
6882190
Report Number(s):
DOE/NV/10630-41; ON: DE93010633
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English