Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T06:44:20.583Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Transport of Gaseous 14C in a Partially Saturated, Fractured, Porous Medium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2011

W. B. Light ,
P. L. Chambré ,
W. W.-L. Lee  and
T. H. Pigford
W. B. Light
Affiliation:
Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
P. L. Chambré
Affiliation:
Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
W. W.-L. Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
T. H. Pigford
Affiliation:
Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
Get access

Abstract

We predict the transport of 14C from the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain using a porous medium model. Use of this model is justified if the Peclet number, which indicates equilibrium between gas in fractures and liquid in rock pores, is much less than unity. For the assumed release rates, maximum predicted concentrations of 14CO2 in rock near the ground surface are comparable to the USNRC limit for unrestricted areas. Furthermore, dilution near the ground surface as the 14CO2 enters the atmosphere will lower the concentrations by several orders of magnitude. Travel times from the repository to the surface are predicted to be hundreds to thousands of years. For a wide range of the parameters, the release rate from the source has negligible effect on the maximum concentrations at the ground surface.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 176: Symposium U – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XIII , 1989 , 761
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Ross, B., in Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XI, ed. Apted, M. J. and Westerman, R. E. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 112, Pittsburgh, PA 1988) p. 23.Google Scholar
2. Amter, S., Behl, E. and Ross, B., “Carbon-14 Travel Time at Yucca Mountain,” Disposal Safety Incorporated, Washington, D.C., 1988.Google Scholar
3. Knapp, R. B., UCRL-97805, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 1987.Google Scholar
4. Stumm, W. and Morgan, J. J., Aquatic Chemistry, 2nd Ed. (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1981).Google Scholar
5. Phillips, S. L., Phillips, C. A. and Skeen, J., LBL-14996, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 1985.Google Scholar
6. Tsang, Y. W. and Pruess, K., Water Resources Res. 23, 1958 (1987).Google Scholar
7. Green, R. T. and Evans, D. D., NUREG/CR-4654, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 1987.Google Scholar
8. Peters, R. R., Klavetter, E. A., Hall, I. J., Blair, S. C., Heller, P. R., and Gee, G. W., SAND84-1471, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, 1984.Google Scholar
9.U.S. Department of Energy, DOE/RW-0199, 8.3.5.14-4, 1988.Google Scholar