Performance assessment modeling of a generic SNF/HLW repository in salt with coupled thermal-hydrologic effects - 15423
This paper describes advances in performance assessment modeling of deep geologic repositories facilitated by a massively parallel, high-performance computing (HPC) environment. Our new Generic Disposal System Analysis (GDSA) Framework utilizes the massively parallel PFLOTRAN multi-physics code to simulate repository performance in the presence of coupled thermal-hydrologic-chemical processes, linked to DAKOTA, an HPC uncertainty sampling and propagation code that provides nested parallelism for multi-realization performance assessment and sensitivity analysis. This enhanced performance assessment (PA) modeling capability is demonstrated with deterministic and probabilistic simulations of a generic repository for SNF and HLW in bedded salt host rock, by comparing repository performance between a case with heat-generating waste ('thermal' case) and a case without heat generation ('isothermal' case). The simulation results provide preliminary insights into the effect of multi-physics processes and thermal-hydrologic coupling on the long-term behavior of a reference-case salt repository. (authors)