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Reactive transport in the complex heterogeneous alluvial aquifer of Fortymile Wash, Nevada

Journal Article · · Chemosphere
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). School of Earth Sciences
  2. Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States). Jackson School of Geosciences, Bureau of Economic Geology
  3. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Jilin Univ., Changchun (China). College of Construction Engineering
+ Show Author Affiliations
Yucca Mountain, Nevada, had been extensively investigated as a potential deep geologic repository for storing high-level nuclear wastes. Previous field investigations of stratified alluvial aquifer downstream of the site revealed that there is a hierarchy of sedimentary facies types. There is a corresponding log conductivity and reactive surface area subpopulations within each facies at each scale of sedimentary architecture. Here in this paper, we use a Lagrangian-based transport model in order to analyze radionuclide dispersion in the saturated alluvium of Fortymile Wash, Nevada. First, we validate the Lagrangian model using high-resolution flow and reactive transport simulations. Then, we used the validated model to investigate how each scale of sedimentary architecture may affect long-term radionuclide transport at Yucca Mountain. Results show that the reactive solute dispersion developed by the Lagrangian model matches the ensemble average of numerical simulations well. The link between the alluvium spatial variability and reactive solute dispersion at different spatiotemporal scales is demonstrated using the Lagrangian model. Finally, the longitudinal dispersivity of the reactive plume can be on the order of hundreds to thousands of meters, and it may not reach its asymptotic value even after 10,000 years of travel time and 2–3 km of travel distance.
Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1412876
Report Number(s):
LA-UR--17-28163
Journal Information:
Chemosphere, Journal Name: Chemosphere Journal Issue: C Vol. 179; ISSN 0045-6535
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (2)

Transport of perfluorocarbon tracers in the Cranfield Geological Carbon Sequestration Project: Modeling and Analysis: Transport of perfluorocarbon tracers in the Cranfield Geological Carbon Sequestration Project journal June 2018
Modeling Influence of Sediment Heterogeneity on Nutrient Cycling in Streambeds journal May 2019

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
58 GEOSCIENCES
Alluvial aquifer
Fortymile Wash Nevada
Hierarchical porous media
Lagrangian theory
Numerical simulation
Reactive transport