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Multi-Scale Near-Field Thermohydrologic Analysis of Alternative Designs for the Potential Repository at Yucca Mountain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

T. A. Buscheck ,
J. Gansemer ,
J. J. Nitao  and
T. H. Delorenzo
T. A. Buscheck
Affiliation:
Geological Sciences and Environmental Technologies Division, LLNL;
J. Gansemer
Affiliation:
Geological Sciences and Environmental Technologies Division, LLNL;
J. J. Nitao
Affiliation:
Geological Sciences and Environmental Technologies Division, LLNL;
T. H. Delorenzo
Affiliation:
Weiss Associates (all at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, L-206, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, CA 94551)
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Abstract

A multi-scale, thermohydrologic (TH) modeling methodology has been developed that integrates the results from 1-, 2-, and 3-D drift-scale models and a 3-D mountain-scale model to calculate the near-field TH variables affecting the performance of the engineered barrier system (EBS) of the potential repository at Yucca Mountain. This information was used by Total System Performance Assessment—Viability Assessment (TSPA-VA) and is being used by the ongoing TSPA, supporting the License Application Design Selection, to assess waste-package (WP) corrosion, waste-form dissolution, and radionuclide transport in the EBS. Line-load WP spacing, which places WPs nearly end to end in widely spaced drifts, results in more locally intensive and uniform heating along drifts, causing hotter, drier, and more uniform conditions on WPs than point-load spacing, which is used in the VA design. Backfilling drifts with a granular material with coarse, well-sorted, nonporous grains (e.g., a coarse quartz sand) results in a large, persistent reduction in RH on WPs; point-load spacing allows only the medium-to-high-heat-output WPs to benefit from RH reduction, but line-load spacing enables all WPs to benefit.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 556: Symposium QQ – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXII , 1999 , 615
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

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References

REFERENCES

1. Buscheck, T.A., “Thermohydrologic Models,” Chapter 3 in Hardin, E.L. (ed.), Near-Field/Altered Zone Models Report, UCRL-ID-129179, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA (1998).Google Scholar
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