Laboratory Analysis of Fluid Flow and Solute Transport through a Variably Saturated Fracture Embedded in Porous Tuff.

摘要

The hydraulic properties of partially saturated fractures are poorly understood even though the performance of a high level waste repository is critically dependent on whether water and radioactive solutes will flow through fractures under unsaturated conditions. Flow through fractures may result in accelerated velocities and reduced travel times from the repository to the accessible environment, thus breaching the geologic barrier which will be relied upon to isolate the nuclear waste. The document reports laboratory hydraulic and tracer tests conducted on natural fractures in rocks removed from a field site in unsaturated fractured tuff at the Apache Leap tuff site in central Arizona. The tests were conducted for the purpose of characterizing fluid flow and solute transport under conditions of negative matric potentials.