Stochastic analysis of the effect of spatial variability of diffusion parameters on radionuclide transport in a low permeability clay layer

Most studies that incorporate subsurface heterogeneity in groundwater flow and transport models only analyze and simulate the spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity. Heterogeneity of the other flow and transport parameters are usually neglected. This approach is often justified, but there are, however, cases in which disregarding the heterogeneity of the other flow and transport parameters can be questionable. In low permeability media, for instance, diffusion is often the dominant transport mechanism. It therefore seems logical to incorporate the spatial variability of the diffusion parameters in the transport model. This study therefore analyses and simulates the spatial variability of the effective diffusion coefficient and the diffusion accessible porosity with geostatistical techniques and incorporates their heterogeneity in the transport model of a low permeability formation. The formation studied was Boom clay (Belgium), a candidate host rock for the deep geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste. The calculated output radionuclide fluxes of this model are compared with the fluxes calculated with a homogeneous model and a model with a heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity distribution. This analysis shows that the heterogeneity of the diffusion parameters has a much larger effect on the calculated output radionuclide fluxes than the heterogeneity of hydraulic conductivity in the low permeability medium under study.