Radionuclide accumulation in soil due to long-term irrigation is an important part of the model for predicting radiation dose in a long period of time. The model usually assumes an equilibrium condition in soil with a constant irrigation rate, so that radionuclide concentration in soil does not change with time and can be analytically solved. This method is currently being used for the dose assessment in the Yucca Mountain project, which requires evaluating radiation dose for a period of 10,000 years. There are several issues associated with the method: (1) time required for the equilibrium condition, (2) validity of constant irrigation rate, (3) agricultural land use for a long period of time, and (4) variation of a radionuclide concentration in water. These issues are evaluated using a numerical method with a simple model built in the GoldSim software. Some key radionuclides, Tc-99, Np-237, Pu-239, and Am-241 are selected as representative radionuclides. The results indicate that the equilibrium model is acceptable except for a radionuclide that requires long time to accumulate in soil and that its concentration in water changes dramatically with time (i.e. a sharp peak). Then the calculated dose for that radionuclide could be overestimated using the current equilibrium …

Over the past two years noteworthy experimental and theoretical progress has been made towards the top-level scientific question for the U.S. program in Heavy Ion Fusion Science and High Energy Density Physics: ''How can heavy ion beams be compressed to the high intensity required to create high energy density matter and fusion conditions''? [1]. New results in transverse and longitudinal beam compression, beam-target interaction, high-brightness transport, beam production, as well as a new scheme in beam acceleration will be reported. Longitudinal and Transverse Beam Compression: The Neutralized Transport Experiment (NTX) demonstrated transverse beam density enhancement by a factor greater than 100 when an otherwise space-charge dominated ion beam was neutralized by a plasma source [2]. This experiment was followed by the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment (NDCX) in which an ion beam was longitudinally compressed by a factor of 50 [3]. This was accomplished by applying a linear head-to-tail velocity ''tilt'' to the beam, and then allowing the beam to drift through a meter-long neutralizing plasma. In both the transverse and longitudinal experiments, extensive 3-D simulations, using LSP, were carried out, and the agreement with experiments was excellent [4]. A three-dimensional kinetic model for longitudinal compression was developed, and it was …

This Annual report summarizes the research performed from 17 April 2005 through 16 April 2006. Major portions of the research in several of the project's current eight tasks have been completed. We have successfully developed the meteorological inputs using the best possible modeling configurations, resulting in improved representation of atmospheric processes. The development of the variable-grid-resolution emissions model, SMOKE-VGR, is also completed. The development of the MAQSIP-VGR has been completed and a test run was performed to ensure the functionality of this air quality model. We have incorporated new emission data base to update the offshore emissions. However, we have faced some bottleneck problems in the testing the integrity of the new database. For this reason, we have asked for a no cost extension of this project to tackle these scientific problems. Thus, the project is on a one-year delay schedule. During the reporting period, we solved all problems related to the new emission database. We are ready to move to developing the final product, implementation and testing of the variable grid technology into the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ) to develop the CMAQ-VGR. During the upcoming months we will perform the first CMAQ-VGR simulations over the Houston-Galveston region …

The Nopal I uranium mine in the Sierra Pena Blanca, Chihuahua, Mexico serves as a natural analogue to the Yucca Mountain repository. The Pena Blanca Natural Analogue Performance Assessment Model simulates the mobilization and transport of radionuclides that are released from the mine and transported to the saturated zone. The Pena Blanca Natural Analogue Performance Assessment Model uses probabilistic simulations of hydrogeologic processes that are analogous to the processes that occur at the Yucca Mountain site. The Nopal I uranium deposit lies in fractured, welded, and altered rhyolitic ash-flow tuffs that overlie carbonate rocks, a setting analogous to the geologic formations at the Yucca Mountain site. The Nopal I mine site has the following analogous characteristics as compared to the Yucca Mountain repository site: (1) Analogous source--UO{sub 2} uranium ore deposit = spent nuclear fuel in the repository; (2) Analogous geology--(i.e. fractured, welded, and altered rhyolitic ash-flow tuffs); (3) Analogous climate--Semiarid to arid; (4) Analogous setting--Volcanic tuffs overlie carbonate rocks; and (5) Analogous geochemistry--Oxidizing conditions Analogous hydrogeology: The ore deposit lies in the unsaturated zone above the water table.

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The heat output of the radioactive waste proposed to be emplaced at Yucca Mountain will strongly affect the thermal-hydrological (TH) conditions in and near the geologic repository for thousands of years. Recent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis has demonstrated that the emplacement tunnels (drifts) will act as important conduits for gas flows driven by natural convection. As a result, vapor generated from boiling/evaporation of formation water near elevated-temperature sections of the drifts may effectively be transported to cooler end sections (where no waste is emplaced), would condense there, and subsequently drain into underlying rock units. To study these processes, we have developed a new simulation method that couples existing tools for simulating TH conditions in the fractured formation with modules that approximate natural convection in heated emplacement drifts. The new method is applied to evaluate the future TH conditions at Yucca Mountain in a three-dimensional model domain comprising a representative emplacement drift and the surrounding fractured rock.

This paper investigates the impact of proposed repository thermal-loading on mountain-scale flow and heat transfer in the unsaturated fractured rock of Yucca Mountain, Nevada. In this context, a model has been developed to study the coupled thermal-hydrological (TH) processes at the scale of the entire Yucca Mountain. This mountain-scale TH model implements the current geological framework and hydrogeological conceptual models, and incorporates the latest rock thermal and hydrological properties. The TH model consists of a two-dimensional north-south vertical cross section across the entire unsaturated zone model domain and uses refined meshes near and around the proposed repository block, based on the current repository design, drift layout, thermal loading scenario, and estimated current and future climatic conditions. The model simulations provide insights into thermally affected liquid saturation, gas- and liquid-phase fluxes, and elevated water and rock temperature, which in turn allow modelers to predict the changes in water flux driven by evaporation/condensation processes, and drainage between drifts.

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