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Evaluating the Moisture Conditions in the Fractured Rock at Yucca Mountain

The Impact of Natural Convection Processes in Heated Emplacement Drifts

^a Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Earth Sciences Division, 1 Cyclotron Road, MS 90-1116, Berkeley CA 94720
^b Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185
^c University of California, Berkeley, CA

View larger version (71K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Schematic of emplacement design at Yucca Mountain.

View larger version (92K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Schematic of expected TH processes along emplacement drift. The figure depicts part of a drift with emplacement and end sections (modified from Webb and Reed, 2004).

View larger version (41K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Schematic showing the geometry of the three-dimensional model domain (not to scale). Close-up view shows discretization of drift and drift vicinity.

View larger version (11K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Thermal load as a function of time (from Bechtel SAIC Company, 2003c). Time zero represents the time of waste emplacement.

View larger version (21K): [in a new window]   Fig. 5. Temperature profiles along emplacement drift, extracted in a volume element just above drift center. The distance along the drift is measured with y = 0 in the center of the heated section of the drift, the symmetry boundary of the half-drift model. The heated section of the drift ends at y = 300 m (indicated by vertical line), followed by a 90-m-long unheated end section.

View larger version (38K): [in a new window]   Fig. 6. Simulated thermal–hydrological conditions for Case 1 (strong convective mixing) in vertical cross-section along the drift after 500 yr. (a) Colored contours show fracture saturation; contour lines show temperature in the rock mass and in the drift. Arrows depict relative magnitude and direction of liquid fluxes. (b) Colored contours show matrix saturation; contour lines show vapor concentration (vapor mass fraction) in the matrix and in the drift.

View larger version (39K): [in a new window]   Fig. 7. Simulated thermal–hydrological conditions for Case 2 (moderate convective mixing) in vertical cross-section along the drift after 500 yr. (a) Colored contours show fracture saturation; contour lines show temperature in the rock mass and in the drift. Arrows depict relative magnitude and direction of liquid fluxes. (b) Colored contours show matrix saturation; contour lines show vapor concentration (vapor mass fraction) in the matrix and in the drift.

View larger version (23K): [in a new window]   Fig. 8. Vapor concentration along drift just above drift center for (a) Case 1, with strong convective mixing, and (b) Case 2, with moderate convective mixing

View larger version (22K): [in a new window]   Fig. 9. Relative humidity along drift just above drift center for (a) Case 1, with strong convective mixing, and (b) Case 2, with moderate convective mixing

View larger version (28K): [in a new window]   Fig. 10. (a) Vapor mass fraction and (b) relative humidity along drift at 500 yr after emplacement. Dashed lines give vapor mass fraction and relative humidity extracted in fracture element just above drift crown. For comparison with Fig. 8 and 9, solid lines give in-drift conditions extracted just above drift center.

View larger version (21K): [in a new window]   Fig. 11. Evolution of vapor flux from formation to drift integrated across heated drift section for (a) Case 1, with strong convective mixing, and (b) Case 2, with moderate convective mixing. Vapor flux was normalized by dividing by the ambient percolation flux integrated across the cross-sectional area of the heated drift section.

View larger version (21K): [in a new window]   Fig. 12. Matrix saturation along drift just above drift crown for (a) Case 1, with strong convective mixing, (b) Case 2, with moderate convective mixing, and (c) Case 3 (no axial vapor transport).

View larger version (17K): [in a new window]   Fig. 13. Evolution of desaturation volume of rock mass along heated drift section. Threshold used for desaturation was a matrix saturation <0.425, half of the average ambient saturation.

View larger version (21K): [in a new window]   Fig. 14. Vertical liquid fluxes in horizontal profile from drift wall into fractured rock in a drift section close to the center of the drift. Fracture and matrix fluxes have been summed up and divided by ambient percolation flux at the considered time.