Subsurface Investigations Program at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory: Annual progress report, FY-1987

The Subsurface Investigations Program is obtaining program objectives of a field calibration of a model to predict long-term radionuclide migration and measurement of the actual migration to date. Three deep boreholes were drilled at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC) to collect sample material for evaluation of radionuclide content in the interbeds, to determine geologic and hydrologic characteristics of the sediments, and to provide monitoring sites for moisture movement in these sediments. Suction lysimeters and heat dissipation sensors were installed in two deep boreholes to collect moisture data. Data from the moisture sensing instruments installed at the RWMC continued to be collected during FY-1987. Because of the large volume of collected data, the RWMC Data Management System was developed and implemented to facilitate the storage, retrieval, and manipulation of the database. Work on the Computer Model Development task focused on a detailed review of previous vadose zone modeling studies at INEL, acquisition and installation of a suite of computer models for unsaturated flow and contaminant transport, and preliminary applications of computer models using site-specific data. Computer models installed on the INEL CRAY computer for modeling transport through the subsurface pathway include SEMTRA, FEMTRA, TRACR3D, MAGNUM, and CHAINT. In addition tomore » the major computer models, eight other codes, referred to as support codes and models, have been acquired and implemented. 27 refs., 70 figs., 22 tabs.« less