In recent years, numerous laboratory and field experiments have been conducted to assess and parameterize colloid and colloid-facilitated radionuclide transport for the Yucca Mountain Project and the Nevada Test Site (NTS) Environmental Restoration Project. Radionuclide contamination of ground water currently exists within or near underground nuclear test cavities at the NTS, and the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste repository represents a potential future source of radionuclide contamination of ground water at the NTS. Furthermore, recent field observations have indicated that small amounts of Plutonium, which normally adsorbs very strongly to mineral surfaces in aquifers, can transport quite rapidly and over significant distances in ground water when associated with inorganic colloids (Kersting et al., 1999). Groundwater samples from all over the Nevada Test Site have been analyzed for colloid concentrations and size distributions, and it is clear that there are significant mass loadings of colloids in the ground water at some locations. These colloids represent mobile surface area for potentially transporting strongly-adsorbed radionuclides. Field transport experiments have involved the use of fluorescent-dyed carboxylate-modified latex (CML) microspheres in the 250- to 650-nm diameter size range as surrogates for natural colloids in forced-gradient tracer tests. These experiments have indicated that effective colloid filtration coefficients appear to decrease as time and length scales increase. They suggest that a small fraction of colloids may be able to transport significant distances in groundwater systems. Laboratory experiments have been conducted to determine radionuclide sorption and desorption parameters onto inorganic colloids present in the groundwater systems and also to determine transport parameters for inorganic colloids in both fractured and porous media present at the Nevada Test Site. More recent laboratory experiments have involved injecting inorganic colloids with radionuclides adsorbed onto them into fractured or porous media to determine the ability of the colloids to facilitate the transport of the radionuclides through the media. Recent experiments have also involved comparing the transport behavior of CML microspheres and inorganic colloids so that more defensible inferences about inorganic colloid transport can be made from CML microsphere transport observations in field tracer tests. All of this experimental information has been collectively used to develop a modeling framework for evaluating sensitivities of predicted colloid-facilitated radionuclide transport to various colloid-transport and radionuclide-colloid-interaction parameters. This modeling framework is helping to focus future experimental efforts on processes and parameters that have the greatest potential impact on colloid-facilitated radionuclide transport at the Nevada Test Site.

The purpose of the Saturated Zone Colloid-Facilitated Transport Analysis and Modeling Report (AMR), as outlined in its Work Direction and Planning Document (CRWMS M & O 1999a), is to provide retardation factors for colloids with irreversibly-attached radionuclides, such as plutonium, in the saturated zone (SZ) between their point of entrance from the unsaturated zone (UZ) and downgradient compliance points. Although it is not exclusive to any particular radionuclide release scenario, this AMR especially addresses those scenarios pertaining to evidence from waste degradation experiments, which indicate that plutonium and perhaps other radionuclides may be irreversibly attached to colloids. This report establishes the requirements and elements of the design of a methodology for calculating colloid transport in the saturated zone at Yucca Mountain. In previous Total Systems Performance Assessment (TSPA) analyses, radionuclide-bearing colloids were assumed to be unretarded in their migration. Field experiments in fractured tuff at Yucca Mountain and in porous media at other sites indicate that colloids may, in fact, experience retardation relative to the mean pore-water velocity, suggesting that contaminants associated with colloids should also experience some retardation. Therefore, this analysis incorporates field data where available and a theoretical framework when site-specific data are not available for estimating plausible ranges of retardation factors in both saturated fractured tuff and saturated alluvium. The distribution of retardation factors for tuff and alluvium are developed in a form consistent with the Performance Assessment (PA) analysis framework for simulating radionuclide transport in the saturated zone. To improve on the work performed so far for the saturated-zone flow and transport modeling, concerted effort has been made in quantifying colloid retardation factors in both fractured tuff and alluvium. The fractured tuff analysis used recent data and interpretation from the C-wells reactive tracer testing complex in the saturated zone of Yucca Mountain. As no data regarding colloid transport have been developed by the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project (YMP) for the alluvial system, a theoretical analysis based on studies performed in other alluvial systems is developed. The parameters derived in this AMR are developed in a manner consistent with the PA methodology and can be readily integrated into that analysis.

Colloids have the potential to transport strongly sorbing radionuclide contaminants in soils and groundwater aquifers. Recent studies from the Nevada Test Site have indicated the enhanced mobility plutonium, albeit in minute quantities, associated with various silicate minerals (Kersting et al., 1999); however, significant colloidal transport of thorium (Th) and rare earths (RE) in nature, considered to be chemical analogs for plutonium, is rare. Yet, the current Yucca Mountain model for colloids would have predicted extensive Th- and RE migration, given these phases' association with clay minerals. Several studies have pointed to the effect of water flow rate on colloid and particulate migration. In this paper, we examine the benefit of relating water flow rate and the wasteform alteration structure to colloid release.