Experimental plan for tracer testing in the Culebra Dolomite at the WIPP site. Revision A

Technical Report · Thu Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 1992

OSTI ID:10156134

Beauheim, R L; Davies, P B

This Experimental Plan provides a conceptual description of a proposed series of tracer tests to be conducted in the Culebra Dolomite Member of the Rustler Formation at the WIPP site. The new tracer tests are intended to address deficiencies that have been identified both in the performance and interpretation of previously conducted tracer tests` Tracer tests were conducted at the H-2 hydropad in 1980, at the H-6 hydropad in 1981, 1982, and 1983, at the H-4 hydropad from 1982 to 1984, at the H-3 hydropad in 1984, and at the H-11 hydropad in 1988. These tests were all performed over the entire 7-m thickness of the Culebra and, therefore, provided no information on the effects of vertical heterogeneity within the Culebra on transport. In addition, each of the previous tracer tests provided data only from 1 to 3 flow paths, allowing calibration of interpretive models but not validation of those models. The tracer tests at the H-3, H-6, and H-11 hydropads have been interpreted using a double-porosity continuum model (SWIFT 11) in which advective transport occurs through a uniform network of fractures while diffusion of tracer from the fractures to the porosity in the rock matrix causes a physical retardation of the transport. External reviewers, particularly participants in the international INTRAVAL program, have suggested that alternative mechanisms, such as fracture channeling, could explain the observed physical retardation and have recommended that additional tracer tests be designed and performed to distinguish among these mechanisms. The previous tracer tests also provided no information on chemical-retardation processes within the Culebra, which have been shown through performance-assessment calculations to have a large impact on cumulative releases of radionuclides from the WIPP to the accessible environment.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 10156134
• Report Number(s): DOE/DP/00789--T277; ON: DE93012208
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052002
053002
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540230
ALPHA-BEARING WASTES
DOLOMITE
NEW MEXICO
PLANNING
RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS MONITORING AND TRANSPORT
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
SALT DEPOSITS
TRACER TECHNIQUES
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
WASTE DISPOSAL AND STORAGE
WIPP