SKB Task Force GWFTS: Lessons Learned from Modeling Field Tracer
Experiments in Finland and Sweden
Abstract
SKB and several other waste management organizations have established
the international SKB Task Force on Modeling of Groundwater Flow and
Transport of Solutes (TF GWFTS) to support and interpret field
experiments. Objectives of the task force are to develop, test and
improve tools for conceptual understanding and simulating groundwater
flow and transport of solutes in fractured rocks. Work is organized in
collaborative modeling tasks. Task 9 focuses on realistic modeling of
coupled matrix diffusion and sorption in heterogeneous crystalline rock
matrix at depth, e.g. by inverse and predictive modeling of in-situ
transport experiments. Posiva’s REPRO (rock matrix REtention PROperties)
experimental campaign has been performed at the ONKALO rock
characterization facility in Finland. The two REPRO experiments
considered were the Water Phase Diffusion Experiment (WPDE), addressing
matrix diffusion in gneiss around a single borehole interval (modeled in
Task 9A), and the Through Diffusion Experiment, which is performed
between sections of three boreholes and addressed by modeling in Task
9C. The Long-Term Diffusion and Sorption Experiment (LTDE-SD) was an
in-situ radionuclide tracer test performed at the Swedish Äspö Hard Rock
Laboratory at a depth of about 410 m below sea level. The experimental
results indicated a possible deeper penetration of sorbing tracers into
the rock matrix than expected. The shape of these tracer penetration
profiles was difficult to reproduce. This experiment was modeled and
interpreted in Task 9B. Task 9D is addressing the possible benefits of
detailed models of the in-situ experiments in safety assessment
calculations. The task is performed by upscaling of the WPDE models to
conditions applicable for nuclear waste repositories. As Task 9 is now
in a finalization process, a number of lessons learned from the 4
sub-tasks have been identified. These include: • field tracer
experiments can provide surprises even when well designed and executed,
• interaction between the experimentalists and modelers is important and
mutually beneficial when investigating anomalous results, • differences
in conceptual models have the greatest impact on model outcomes, • it is
not trivial to go from modeling of field experiments to safety
assessment modeling without making substantial simplifications.