Computer Aided Design for the Selection Process of Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Sites

Abstract

The long-term performance evaluation of a hazardous/nuclear waste site is a scientific analysis process that quantifies how well the system achieves its basic design objective, i.e. the isolation of the hazardous/nuclear waste from the accessible environment. Application of performance in site selection analysis is to predict the long-term behavior of the candidate site system (in the order of decades for a hazardous waste site and centuries for a nuclear waste repository) under normal and disruptive man-induced/geologic events. The forecasting of contaminant/radionuclide movement under changing site conditions can only be achieved using both deterministic and stochastic computer modeling techniques. The analysis must consider uncertainties in (1) field and laboratory data, ( 2) theoretical completeness of the predictive models, and ( 3) predictions of future conditions.