INTRAVAL Phase 2: Modeling testing at the Las Cruces Trench Site

Several field experiments have been performed by scientists from the University of Arizona and New Mexico State University at the Las Cruces Trench Site to provide data tc test deterministic and stochastic models for water flow and solute transport. These experiments were performed in collaboration with INTRAVAL, an international effort toward validation of geosphere models for the transport of radionuclides. During Phase I of INTRAVAL, qualitative comparisons between experimental data and model predictions were made using contour plots of water contents and solute concentrations. Detailed quantitative comparisons were not made. To provide data for more rigorous model testing, a third Las Cruces Trench experiment was designed by scientists from the University of Arizona and New Mexico State University. Modelers from the Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analysis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New Mexico State University, Pacific Northwest Laboratory, and the University of Texas provided predictions of water flow and tritium transport to New Mexico State University for analysis. The corresponding models assumed soil characterizations ranging from uniform to deterministically heterogeneous to stochastic. This report presents detailed quantitative comparisons to field data.