Reactive Transport Modelling of the Interaction of Fission Product Ground Contamination With Alkaline and Cementitious Leachates

The fission products Cs-137 and Sr-90 are amongst the most common radionuclides occurring in ground contamination at the UK civil nuclear sites. Such contamination is often associated with alkaline liquids and the mobility of these fission products may be affected by these chemical conditions. Similar geochemical effects may also result from cementitious leachate associated with building foundations and the use of grouts to remediate ground contamination. The behaviour of fission products in these scenarios is a complex interaction of hydrogeological and geochemical processes. A suite of modelling tools have been developed to investigate the behaviour of a radioactive plume containing Cs and Sr. Firstly the effects of sorption due to cementitious groundwater is modelled using PHREEQC. This chemical model is then incorporated into PHAST for the 3-D reactive solute transport modeling. Results are presented for a generic scenario including features and processes that are likely to be relevant to a number of civil UK nuclear sites. Initial results show that modelling can be a very cost-effective means to study the complex hydrogeological and geochemical processes involved. Modelling can help predict the mobility of contaminants in a range of site end point scenarios, and in assessing the consequences of decommissioning activities.