Migration of radioactive wastes from shallow land burial site under saturated and unsaturated conditions

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6714576

Whang, J

The objectives of this study were to provide information on the effects of unsaturated flow conditions on the movement of radionuclides, to show the significance of the hysteresis effect by a comparison of unsaturated flow with saturated flow, and to validate an improved numerical model with detailed experimental data. The method employed to make a constant unsaturated flow proved to be adequate within the range of applied negative pressure. The method also confirmed that the infiltration of water into a dry soil followed the wetting curve on the soil-water characteristic, implying that the use of correct soil-water characteristic is necessary to describe the flow of water in soil. The three different unsaturated flow conditions employed in a transport experiment with barium made possible the comparison of hydrologic flow effects on the migration of radionuclides with various degrees of saturation, i.e., the larger the water content, the larger the retardation becomes. I-131 was also employed in the transport experiment, and showed almost no retardation as had been expected. A two dimensional finite element model was employed to be validated with detailed experimental data and the simulational results showed its ability to predict the migration of dissolved wastes buried in a site, under various degrees of soil saturation. The results showed also that the conservative assumption normally employed in most available models, that the soil is always saturated, may lead to a great overestimate of radionuclide migration.

• Research Organization: Georgia Inst. of Tech., Atlanta (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6714576
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

510300* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
DATA
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUID FLOW
GROUND DISPOSAL
INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MOISTURE
NUMERICAL DATA
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
SOILS
TESTING
VALIDATION
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES