Regional flow and solute transport modeling for site suitability. Part I

The nature of regional flow systems in large sedimentary basins will largely determine the effectiveness of regional flow as a barrier to radionuclide escape from deep geologic repositories. The purpose of the work reported herein and the proposed future work is to develop a methodology for evaluating regional flow barriers by using numerical models. The Williston Basin was chosen as an archetype case for the regional modeling study. However, due to the simplified nature of the study, the results are not meant to represent the behavior of a repository actually placed within the Williston Basin. The major components of this Phase I study are: (1) assembly and reduction of available data; (2) formulation of a simplified geohydrologic model; (3) computer simulation of fluid flow; and (4) computer simulation of solute transport. As of this report, the first two items are essentially completed. Computer simulation of fluid flow will require some revision and further study, which will be done in the second phase of this study. Computer simulation of solute transport has been considered only on a very preliminary basis. Important conclusions of this Phase I study are as follows. Assembly and reduction of data require an extensive work effort. Generally, the parameters describing fluid flow are poorly known on a regional basis and those describing solute transport are unknown