Particle tracking for unsaturated-zone groundwater travel time analysis at Yucca Mountain
- Sandia National Lab., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Spectra Research Institute, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
A particle tracking code developed to link numerical modeling of groundwater flow in the unsaturated zone to the analysis of groundwater travel times was used to produce preliminary estimates of the distribution of groundwater-travel time from a potential repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada to the water table. Compliance with 10CFR960 requires the demonstration that pre-waste-emplacement groundwater travel time from the disturbed zone to the accessible environment is expected to exceed 1,000 years along any path of likely and significant radionuclide travel. The use of multiple particles and multiple realizations of the geology and parameter distributions in the unsaturated zone allows a probabilistic analysis of groundwater travel times that may be applied for evaluating compliance.
- OSTI ID:
- 127107
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9504179--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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