Evolution of patterns of regional groundwater flow in southeastern New Mexico: Response to post-Pleistocene changes in climate

摘要

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is a potential repository for transuranic wastes generated by defense programs of the US Department of Energy. The repository site is located 42 km east of the city of Carlsbad, New Mexico in a thick, Permian-age deposit of bedded salt. One consideration in evaluating the performance of the repository is that a future society might inadvertently penetrate the repository with one or more drill holes. Given certain circumstances, these holes could provide a pathway for contaminated brine to move upward into relatively permeable strata located above the bedded salt. There is concern that flowing groundwater could then transport radionuclides laterally to the sub-surface portion of the accessible environment, currently defined by the disposal regulations as the region more than 5 kilometers from the radioactive waste. The simulations presented here are part of a numerical modeling study of the possible impact that a change in climate over the next 10,000 years could have on the pattern of groundwater flow and, consequently, on the migration of radionuclides in strata overlying the repository.