Assessment of the Idaho National Laboratory Remote Handled Low Level Waste Disposal Facility Hydraulic Performance
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
This document provides a summary of the expected hydraulic performance of the vault drainage system installed at Idaho National Laboratory’s Remote Handled Low-Level Waste disposal facility. Hydraulic performance was assessed through analysis of the mechanical properties of the drainage system and backfill materials, including material gradation and proctor data; laboratory data, including bulk density, porosity, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, moisture-retention data, and van Genuchten parameters; and field-data collected using in-situ instrumentation with data collected during a vault-scale infiltration characterization test. Hydraulic performance of the vault drainage system was designed to promote a greater than 500-year vault concrete longevity. The predicted hydraulic performance is, in part, a function of the materials used in construction, sequencing of the hydraulic drainage materials, and the as-built condition of the materials following compaction necessary to ensure vault stability. Specifying specific as-built hydraulic properties is exceedingly difficult at the facility specification/design phase. Instead, material mechanical properties were specified and confirmed early during the construction process. As the drainage materials were installed, samples were sent to a laboratory for hydraulic property testing and, after drainage system installation was complete around the performance assessment vaults, a field-scale infiltration test was conducted with data collection to verify the as-built hydraulic performance. This report provides summary data for the measured mechanical properties, laboratory data, and field infiltration characterization test data. Mechanical data have relatively little variability because of the sieve system used when the materials were crushed onsite. Laboratory data were obtained for a relatively small number of material samples, but the data obtained for each sample are extensive. However, laboratory data provide the moisture retention relationships and relative hydraulic conductivity-moisture content relationships for uninstalled materials. Conducting field-scale infiltration tests with collection of moisture retention data and wetting front propagation data allows extension of laboratory data to the as-installed conditions of the vault drainage system. These combined data types are integrated using a numerical simulation of the infiltration characterization test to refine model parameters. The infiltration characterization model will be used to support the hydraulic and concrete performance of the vault system provided in the facility performance assessment.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC07-05ID14517
- OSTI ID:
- 1467680
- Report Number(s):
- INL/EXT-17-41649-Rev000; TRN: US1902775
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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