Estimation of contaminant transport in groundwater beneath radioactive waste disposal facilities

Performance assessments are required for low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities to demonstrate compliance with the performance objectives, consider human exposures from water, air, and inadvertent intruder pathways. Among these, the groundwater pathway analysis usually involves complex numerical simulations with results which are often difficult to verify and interpret. This paper presents a technique to identify and simplify the essential parts of the groundwater analysis. The transport process of radionuclides including infiltration of precipitation, leachate generation, and advection and dispersion in the groundwater is divided into several steps. For each step, a simple analytical model is constructed and refined to capture the dominant phenomena represented in the complex analysis included in a site-specific performance assessment. This step-wise approach provides a means for gaining insights into the transport process and obtaining reasonable estimates of relevant quantities for facility design and site evaluation