A groundwater flow and transport model of long-term radionuclide migration in the central Frenchman flat, Nevada test site

A set of groundwater flow and transport models were created for the Central Testing Area of Frenchman Flat at the former Nevada Test Site to investigate the long-term consequences of a radionuclide migration experiment that was done between 1975 and 1990. In this experiment, radionuclide migration was induced from a small nuclear test conducted below the water table by pumping a well 91 m away. After radionuclides arrived at the pumping well, the contaminated effluent was discharged to an unlined ditch leading to a playa where it was expected to evaporate. However, recent data from a well near the ditch and results from detailed models of the experiment by LLNL personnel have convincingly demonstrated that radionuclides from the ditch eventually reached the water table some 220 m below land surface. The models presented in this paper combine aspects of these detailed models with concepts of basin-scale flow to estimate the likely extent of contamination resulting from this experiment over the next 1,000 years. The models demonstrate that because regulatory limits for radionuclide concentrations are exceeded only by tritium and the half-life of tritium is relatively short (12.3 years), the maximum extent of contaminated groundwater has or will soon be reached,more » after which time the contaminated plume will begin to shrink because of radioactive decay. The models also show that past and future groundwater pumping from water supply wells within Frenchman Flat basin will have negligible effects on the extent of the plume.« less