I have to thank Nima Ehsani for sending me the link to this excellent review paper from Water Resources Research. On the other hand, he's distracted me from some other things I have to do. Ah, displacement behavior - the bane of my existence! But in this case, welcomed!
Tsang, C.-F., I. Neretnieks, and Y. Tsang, 2015: Hydrologic issues associated with nuclear waste repositories. Water Resour. Res., pp. 1 – 50, doi:10.1002/2015WR017641. http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/2015WR017641
The three authors are ones whose names are familiar to those who have worked in this field since the 1980s or so, including yours truly. I worked on what used to be called the Nevada Test Site, and, to a lesser degree, the Yucca Mountain Project, for the State of Nevada. I did not do much of the 'sexy stuff' - unsaturated zone fracture-flow modeling - although I did review some UZ work. Most of the work I did was related to regional groundwater flow modeling. That was of importance should any of the radionuclides make it down to the aquifer system beneath the repository.
Download Tsang_et_al-2015-Water_Resources_Research
Abstract
Significant progress in hydrology, especially in subsurface flow and solute transport, has been made over the last 35 years because of sustained interest in underground nuclear waste repositories. The present paper provides an overview of the key hydrologic issues involved, and to highlight advances in their understanding and treatment because of these efforts. The focus is not on the development of radioactive waste repositories and their safety assessment, but instead on the advances in hydrologic science that have emerged from such studies. Work and results associated with three rock types, which are being considered to host the repositories, are reviewed, with a different emphasis for each rock type. The first rock type is fractured crystalline rock, for which the discussion will be mainly on flow and transport in saturated fractured rock. The second rock type is unsaturated tuff, for which the emphasis will be on flow from the shallow subsurface through the unsaturated zone to the repository. The third rock type is clay-rich formations, whose permeability is very low in an undisturbed state. In this case, the emphasis will be on hydrologic issues that arise from mechanical and thermal disturbances; i.e., on the relevant coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical processes. The extensive research results, especially those from multiyear large-scale underground research laboratory investigations, represent a rich body of information and data that can form the basis for further development in the related areas of hydrologic research.
Wonderful stuff!
As a result of the search for nuclear repositories some significant hydrologic science and engineering advances were accomplished under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (to a lesser extent), and agencies in other countries. As one of my colleagues said, 'DoE was hydrogeology's NSF.' Not that it wanted to be.
Enjoy - I will!
"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." - Benjamin Franklin (thanks to @H2Opportunity)
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