Preliminary sensitivity studies of fast-path flow on a cross-section of yuxxa mountain, nevada

摘要

One critierion of 10CFR960 used to determine suitability of Yucca Mountain, NV as a potential nuclear waste repository site is that the groundwater travel time (GWTT) frm the repository to the accessible environment must exceed 1,000 years along the fastest path of likely and significant radionuclide travel. Sandia National Laboratories has developed modeling tools in order to evaluate fast-path flow~1 and time it takes a particle to travel from the repositry to the saturated zone~2. The analyzese reported to date represent only a portion of a complete GWTT evaluation, since they only consider potential fast-phath flow through the unsaturated zone. In addition to the above mentioned work, sensitivity analyese on a numerical flow model assist in evaluating GWTT. This study focuses on understanding the importance of intra-formation heterogeneities and the effects of the geostatistically versus deterministically determined unit thickness on a unsaturated flow system.