Bitte wählen Sie ihr Lieferland und ihre Kundengruppe
The evolution of the water chemistry and secondary mineral development in the vicinity of the near-field of a potential Yucca Mountain high level nuclear waste repository will be controlled by temperature, and interaction of water with rock over time. This report describes initial bounds on water composition and secondary mineral development, as a function of time, temperature, and rock type (devitrified, welded tuff and vitrophyre). The code EQ3/6 was used in the calculations, with explicit use of transition state theory models for mineral dissolution rates for the framework minerals of the tuff. Simulations were run for time durations sufficient to achieve steady state conditions. Uncertainty in the calculations, due to uncertainty in the measured dissolution rates, was considered by comparing results in simulations in which rates were varied within the range of known uncertainties for dissolution rate constants. The results demonstrate that the steady state mineralogy and water compositions are relatively insensitive to the rock unit modeled, which is consistent with the fact that the compositions of the rock units in the vicinity if the potential repository are similar, and will tend toward similar thermodynamic free energy minima, for similar rock:water ratios. Significant differences are observed, however, for large differences in rock: water ratios. The rates at which this end point condition are approached are a function of the rate parameters used, and can vary by orders of magnitude.