Software Quality Assurance for LeachXS/ORCHESTRA as a Tool for Assessment of Waste Management Systems Performance - 17486
Qualified modeling and simulation tools and experimental data are needed to provide a reasonable basis for the incorporation of realistic wasteform retention assumptions (i.e., those without orders-of-magnitude conservatism) into performance assessments and regulatory decisions. Use of highly conservative assumptions in performance assessments has historically led to the overprediction of release and near-field transport by as much as 4- to 6-orders of magnitude thereby limiting the nature and quantities of certain contaminants of concern in near surface disposal facilities. This project provides peer-reviewed models and characterization methods to provide more reasonable assumptions for use in performance assessments and regulatory decisions. Simulations tools have been developed to predict hydraulic and chemical performance of waste-forms and barriers used in nuclear applications under several important aging and degradation scenarios, including sulfate attack, carbonation, oxidation, cracking, and leaching; these tools are complaint with DOE Order 414.1D and ASME NQA-1. Wasteform characterization methods have been developed that are consistent with US EPA's Leaching Environmental Assessment Framework (LEAF) currently part of EPA's Hazardous Waste Test Methods (SW-846); the resulting experimental data are evaluated using LeachXS. ORCHESTRA models, that can be called seamlessly from LeachXS, have been developed representing both laboratory and field conditions; these models have undergone an extensive Software Quality Assurance process where they have been calibrated (where necessary), verified, and validated to be compliant with relevant guidelines. The models used for field predictions have also been incorporated into the Cementitious Barriers Partnership (CBP) Software Toolbox that allows probabilistic evaluation of field scenarios. The foci over the next year will be on providing 1) a mechanistic basis for projecting the retention of Tc-99, I-129, and other important radionuclides in near-surface disposal facilities at the Savannah River and Hanford Sites and 2) a technical basis for assessing the efficacy of macro-encapsulation of mercury-contaminated debris at the Oak Ridge Reservation. (authors)