Report of the committee to review the use of J-13 well water in Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations

Abstract

Section 1 IntroductionIn June of 1987, the Haste Management Project Office (WMPO) of the Department of Energy conducted a special audit of the activities of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigation (NNWSI) Project at Liverrnore. Observation No. 1 of the audit report (WMPO Audit S-87-1) stated that "The rationale for use of Well 3-13 water as the basis for the reference criteria for NNWSI Project activity (until water samples from the unsaturated zone are available) is not clear." A brief reply to that observation was given by the NNWSI Project staff, citing discussions of the justification for using J-I3 water in the Yucca Mountain Environmental Assessment Report Q), which in turn outlines some of the relevant literature on this point. However, it has been noted that there never has been a comprehensive, well-documented examination of the basis for the use of J-13 water in the nuclear waste storage investigations.The management of the NNWSI Project at Livermore therefore asked that a committee be formed to review more thoroughly the question of the validity of the use of J-13 water as a reference material. This committee was composed of scientists who had expertise in the requisite technical areas, but who were not involved in the current activities of the NNWSI Project. The committee was also charged with reexamining and recommending, in the light of the assessment of the technical validity of the use of J-13 water, the NNWSI quality-assurance level to which future activities involving J-13 water should be assigned. This document is a report of these findings.It was apparent to the committee from the outset that the overall question of the rationale for use of J-13 water extends beyond just the Livermore studies, which mostly have dealt with phenomena in the so-called "near-field" region of the repository, which is the region that will be influenced by heat from the radioactive waste. Thus far, the Livermore work has focussed mostly on experimental and computer-modeling studies of rock/water, metal-alloy/water, and waste-form/water interactions. Other investigators, particularly at Los Alamos National Laboratory, have been concerned with the behavior, e. g., transport, of radionuclides in the ground waters outside the immediate Yucca Mountain area of the repository site. Thus the question of the validity of J-13 water as a reference material i f a more global one, and should be asked -1.1-in terms of the NNWSI program as a whole, and not just with respect to waters in the unsaturated zone as was done by the WMPO audit committee. In this sense, we may have enlarged the scope of the enquiry somewhat, but we believe it has led to a more coherent, if not more satisfying answer. Water from the J-13 well has been used experimentally in waste storage studies for at least ten years. Beginning in about 1977 (2) at Los Alamos, the ready availability of 0-13 water and its known similarity to the other Nevada Test Site ground waters made it a natural choice as a surrogate water for experiments designed to measure phe...

EQ6 Calculations for Chemical Degradation of Navy Waste Packages

“…4) for -1x1o6 years. The basis for this assumption is that the groundwater composition is controlled largely by transport through the host rock, over pathways of hundreds of meters.…”

Progress report on colloid-facilitated transport at Yucca Mountain: Yucca Mountain site characterization program milestone 3383

“…Well J-13 is a water-supply well located in Fortymile Wash (east of Yucca Mountain); details of its construction and penetration levels are presented in Figure 1 (reproduced from Harrar et al 1990). The total depth of the well is 3,500 feet, and it has been producing since its completion in 1963.…”

“…Inspection of the construction diagram reveals perforations from a long section below the Topopah Spring Member starting at 2,690 feet. However, because of a discrepancy in the records concerning the well configuration (Harrar et al 1990), it is not clear whether the entire length of the 5.5-inch liner below 1,499 feet is slotted or whether only the interval shown in the figure below 2,690 ft. is open. Resolving this discrepany is not very important because there is no cement behind the liner, thus providing access to the well to any fluids entering the borehole below about 1,550 feet.…”

“…Resolving this discrepany is not very important because there is no cement behind the liner, thus providing access to the well to any fluids entering the borehole below about 1,550 feet. However, hydraulic tests performed on the well yielded transmissivities Harrar et al 1990).…”

“…In this report, we also propose a strategy, including data collection, for performance assessment calculations that can be used to evaluate the importance of colloid-facilitated radionuclide transport at Yucca Mountain. Harrar et al (1990) concluded that there is considerable justification for the use of Well J-13 water as a baseline, or reference, water for the Yucca Mountain Project investigations. Part of the justification is their conclusion that a major portion of the water produced by Well 5-13 originates in the Topopah Spring Member of the Paintbrush Tuff (which is the same stratigraphic unit as the one proposed for the repository).…”