Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2024-05-16T02:03:12.348Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radionuclide Sorption at Yucca Mountain, Nevada - A Demonstration of an Alternative Approach for Performance Assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

David R. Turner ,
Roberto T. Pabalan ,
James D. Prikryl  and
F. Paul Bertetti
David R. Turner
Affiliation:
Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, Texas 78238
Roberto T. Pabalan
Affiliation:
Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, Texas 78238
James D. Prikryl
Affiliation:
Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, Texas 78238
F. Paul Bertetti
Affiliation:
Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, Texas 78238
Get access

Abstract

An approach is developed for including aspects of mechanistic models of radionuclide sorption into performance assessment (PA) calculations. Water chemistry data from the vicinity of Yucca Mountain (YM), Nevada are screened and used to calculate the ranges in key parameters that could exert control on radionuclide sorption behavior. Using a diffuse-layer surface complexation model, sorption parameters for Np(V) and U(VI) are calculated based on the chemistry of each water sample. Model results suggest that lognormal probability distribution functions (PDFs) of sorption parameters are appropriate for most of the samples; the total calculated range is almost five orders of magnitude for Np(V) sorption and nine orders of magnitude for U(VI) sorption, but most samples fall in a narrower range. Finally, statistical correlation between the calculated Np(V) and U(VI) sorption parameters can be included as input into PA sampling routines, so that the value selected for one radionuclide sorption parameter is conditioned by its statistical relationship to the others. The approaches outlined here can be adapted readily to current PA efforts, using site-specific information to provide geochemical constraints on PDFs for radionuclide transport parameters.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 556: Symposium QQ – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXII , 1999 , 583
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

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. TRW Environmental Safety Systems, Inc., B00000000-01717-2200-00136, Las Vegas, NV, 1995.Google Scholar
2. Mohanty, S. and McCartin, T., NUREG-1668, Vol.1, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC, 1998.Google Scholar
3. Langmuir, D., Aqueous Environmental Geochemistry (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1997).Google Scholar
4. Langmuir, D., in Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XX, edited by Gray, W. and Triay, I. (Materials Research Society Proceedings 465, Pittsburgh, PA, 1997), p. 769–780.Google Scholar
5. Turner, D., CNWRA 95-00 l, Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses, San Antonio, TX, 1995.Google Scholar
6. Davis, J. and Kent, D., in Reviews in Mineralogy: Vol.23. Mineral-Water Interface Geochemistry, edited by Hochella, M. Jr., and White, A. (Min. Soc. Amer., Washington, DC, 1990), p. 177–260.Google Scholar
7. Bertetti, F., Pabalan, R., and Almendarez, M., in Adsorption of Metals by Geomedia, edited by Jenne, E. (Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1998), p. 131–148.Google Scholar
8. Pabalan, R., Turner, D., Bertetti, F., and Prikryl, J., in Adsorption of Metals by Geomedia, edited by Jenne, E. (Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1998), p. 99–130.Google Scholar
9. Wanner, H., Albinsson, Y., Karnl, O., Wieland, E., Wersin, P., and Charlet, L.. Radiochimica Acta 66/67, 733 (1994).Google Scholar
10. Dzombak, D. and Morel, F., Surface Complexation Modeling: Hydrous Ferric Oxide (John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1990).Google Scholar
11. Turner, D. and Sassman, S., Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 21, 311 (1996).Google Scholar
12. Perfect, D., Faunt, C., Steinkampf, W., and Turner, A., USGS-OFR-94-305, U.S. Geol. Survey, Denver, CO, 1995.Google Scholar
13. Hitchon, B. and Brulotte, M., Applied Geochemistry 9, 637 (1994).Google Scholar
14. Bradbury, M. and Baeyens, B., Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 158, 364 (1993).Google Scholar
15. Allison, J., Brown, D., and Novo-Gradac, K., EPA/600/3-91/021, Environ. Protection Agency, Athens, GA, 1991.Google Scholar
16. Pabalan, R. and Turner, D., Aqueous Geochemistry 2, 203 (1997).Google Scholar
17. Turner, D., Pabalan, R., and Bertetti, F., Clays and Clay Minerals 46, 256 (1998).Google Scholar
18. Vaniman, D., Bish, D., Chipera, S., Carlos, B., and Guthrie, G., YMP Milestone 3665, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 1996.Google Scholar
19. Triay, I., Cotter, C., Huddleston, M., Leonard, D., Weaver, S., Chipera, S., Bish, D., Meijer, A., and Canepa, J., LA-12961-MS/UC-814, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 1996.Google Scholar