A field-scale long-term study on radionuclide transport through weathered granites at a site in southern China

A regional strategy for safety disposal of low- and intermediate-level radioactive wastes (LILW) has been implemented in China to protect humans and the environment. A joint onsite and laboratory investigation was conducted for a field site in southern China to assess the probability for safe disposal of LILW, which requires the understanding of long-term radionuclide transport behaviors under field conditions. This study presents the field-scale modeling of radionuclide transport through weathered granites for a conservative, a weakly sorbing and a strongly sorbing tracer by incorporating laboratory and field data. The field-scale radionuclide transport model was developed on the basis of a validated long-term groundwater flow model and field-measured dispersion coefficient, as well as laboratory-characterized strontium and cesium distribution coefficients in the weathered granites. The model was then used to perform the long-term transport prediction and risk assessment of radionuclide pollution for both the natural site setting and the graded site setting. Model simulation reveals that the numerical sensitivities of calculated concentrations are tracer dependent and changing with time. The conservative radionuclide is most sensitive to changes in hydraulic conductivity (K) while slightly sensitive to changes in effective porosity (φ), specific yield (μ) and longitudinal dispersion coefficient (D _L), indicating advection is the main transport process of conservative radionuclide. The weakly and strongly sorbing tracers, on the other hand, are most sensitive to changes in the distribution coefficient (K _d) and less sensitive to changes in the rest of model parameters, revealing that sorption is the main process for controlling the transport of sorbing tracers. A conservative radionuclide plume moves at an average velocity of about 54 m/a, which is too fast to be considered as safe disposal under the natural site setting. However, the plume of the conservative radionuclide could be slowed down to a velocity around 5.3 m/a due to the reduction of the hydraulic gradient under the graded site setting. Therefore, the conservative radioactive wastes could be disposed at the mid-eastern part of the site under the graded site setting because the transport path has been prolonged and thus no conservative radionuclides could migrate out of the site in a reasonable timeframe. For the sorbing tracers, however, results of the computed transport distance are 40 and 2 m at 500 years, respectively. Therefore, they can be disposed safely at the site under both natural and graded site settings. This study provides an insight to the field-scale long-term behaviors of radionuclide transport. The integrated modeling method presented in this study is most useful for the environmental impact assessment of the site conditions relevant to the safe disposal of hazardous wastes.