ML20055F745
| ML20055F745 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 07/16/1990 |
| From: | Hurt R NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| To: | Bibxy W ENERGY, DEPT. OF, IDAHO OPERATIONS OFFICE |
| References | |
| REF-PROJ-M-32 NUDOCS 9007190138 | |
| Download: ML20055F745 (4) | |
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g3 Project M-32
.Willis W. Bixby, Director West Valley Project Office U. S. Department of Energy ldaho Operations P. O. Box 191 West Valley, NY 14171
Dear.Dr. Bixby:
A group of colleagues and I plan to visit the West Valley Demonstration Project from August 13 to 15, 1990. We hope to discuss your proCress on the burial ground interception trench'and our plans to develop a new hydrogeological model of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)-licensed disposal area.
An explanation of our modeling plans is contained in the enclosure, prepared by Tom Nicholson of NRC's Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. We are also interested in vieting the Buttermilk Creek landslide area east of the plant.
I have already spoken to Eli Maestas about this list of subjects, and will inform him if any changes need to be made between now and August 13.
I will be accompanied by Tom Nicholson and Jack Parrott, both NRC staff hydrologists, and by Jan Kool and Ed Sudicky, NRC contractors involved in the modeling work.
. Messrs. Kool and Sudicky will arrive with the rest of us, but will probably leave on the afternoon of August 14 Mr. Sudicky is a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and is a Canadian citizen.
Please advise me if we need to make special arrangements for his attendance.
Sincerely, M_W by R. Davis Hurt West Valley Project Manager Advanced Fuel and Special Facilities Section Fuel Cycle Safety Branch Division of Industrial and Medical Nuclear Safety cc:
T. DeBoer, NYSERDA
Enclosure:
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i ENCLOSURE OBJECTIVE:
To model the NRC-Licensed Disposal Area (NDA) at the Western New York Nuclear Service Center, Cattaragus County, New York, (West Valley) using the VAM2D code.
Attached is a list of the HMSS and RES-funded contractor reports (see Bibliography) and staff NUREG-1164 (Nicholson and Hurt) that will be used to initially set up the simulation studies.
The hydrogeologic data sets as presented in USGS WRI's and Professional Paper and the "Geoscience Database" from PNL shall be reviewed and used where appropriate. The previous simulation studies and results from both USGS and PNL shall also be reviewed prior to modeling.
The source term inventory to be modeled shall be. developed from information in NUREG-1164 and consultations with NMSS staff.
An important consideration will be the examination of transport mechanisms-and rates in the near-surface weathered zone, and the deep non-weathered fractured zone. The objective is to evaluate differences between transport conditions and rates in the near-surface advective-dominated and deeper diffusion-dominated systems.
Further work may deal with investigating transient flow paths and transport rates for anticipated future conditions (e.g., local flooding, clay barrier erosion, and increased recharge rates) using site-specific information on hydrologic conditions, waste disposal inventories and leach rates.
Hydraulic and transport parameters and site-specific information of interest are:
For the near-surface disturbed material and shallow weathered and fractured Lsvery Till:
vertical and horizontal components of saturated hydraulic conductivity values including anisotropy, effective porosity, saturated water content, specific storage, longitudinal and transverse'dispersivities, apparent molecular diffusion coefficient, bulk density, thickness of unit, hydraulic gradients, Constitut.ive relations for variably saturated flow (i.e., moisture content vs. pressure head, and effective hydraulic conductivity vs.
pressure head) (provide if possible parameters from van Genutchen relations
,l or Brooks-Corey relations.)
fracture aperature, density, orientation and extent for various depths.
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For the deeper non-disturbed non-weathered and slightly fractured Lavery Till:
vertical and horizontal components of saturated hydraulic conductivity 4
values including anisotropy, effective porosity, specific storage, saturated water content, longitudinal and. transverse dispersivities, bulk density.
thickness of unit, i
' hydraulic gradients, fracture aperture, density, orientation and extent for various
- depths, apparent molecular diffusion coefficient, constitutive relations for' variably saturated flow (i.e., moisture content vs. pressure head, and effective hydraulic conductivity vs.
-pressurehead)(provideifpossibleparametersfromvanGenutchenrelations or Brooks-Corey relations.)
l
. Identification of.the transition zone between the near-surface weathered unit and the daeper non-weathered Lavery Till.
Regional water-table levels, perched-water levels and location of ground-water-seeps over time (i.e., tydrologic surveys) from both USGS and DOE /WVNS data bases.
J Correlation of precipation records, snow melt data, and local recharge to 1
water-table fluctuations.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Bergeron, Marcel P. et al., "Geohydrologic Conditions.at the Nuclear-Fuels Reprocessing Plant and Waste-Management Facilities at the Western New York Nuclear Service Center, Cattaragus County, New York." Water-Resources Investigations Report 85-4145, U.S. Geological Survey, Ithaca, N.Y. 1987.
Bergeron, Marcel P. and Edward F. Bugliosi, Ground-Water Flow Near Two l
Radioactive-Waste-Disposal Areas. at the Western New York Nuclear Service Center, Cattaragus County, New York - - Results of Simulation," Water-Resources Investigations Report 86-4351, U.S. Geological Survey, Ithaca,.
N.Y. 1988.
Bergeron, M.P., T.L. Cadd, J.L. Smoot, and W. Cronin, " Documentation of the Geoscience Database Retrieval and Analysis System for Commercial Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facilities: West Valley, New York,"
Pacific Northwest Laboratory, June, 1989.
Bergeron, M.P., M.L. Kemner, and J.L. Smoot, " Performance Assessment Analysis of the Commerical Low-level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility near West Valley, NY," Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Richland, WA, May 1989, (unpublished report available through U.S. NRC, Office of Nuclear Material Safety & Safeguards, Division of Low-level Waste Management &'
Decommissioning).
Kappel, William M., and William E. Harding, " Surface-Water Hydrology of the Western New York Nuclear Service Center, Cattaragus County, New York,"
Water-Resources Investigations Report 85-4309, U.S. Geological Survey, Ithaca, N.Y.1987.-
Nicholson, Thomas J. and R. Davis Hurt, "Information on the Confinement-Capability of the Facility Disposal Area at West Valley, New York" NUREG-1164, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissio'n, Washington, D.C., December g
1985.
Prudic, David E., " Ground-Water Hydrology and Subsurface Migration of Radionuclides at a Commerical Radioactive-Waste Burial Site, West Valley, Cattaraugus County, New York," U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1325, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1986.
Smoot, J.
L., "A Review of Geoscience Characteristics and Disposal Experience L.
at the Commerical Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility near West' Valley, N.Y.," NUREG/CR-b431, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C., August'1989.
l Yager, Richard M., " Simulation of Ground-Water. Flow-Near the Nuclear-Fuel nli Facility at the Western New York Nuclear Service Center, Cattaragus County, New York," Water-Resources Investigations Report 85-4308, U.S.
Geological Survey, Ithaca, N.Y. 1987.
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