HR: 1330h
AN: H43C-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Testing an Integrated Ground-Water Monitoring Strategy for Nuclear Waste and Decommissioning Sites
AU: * Price, V
EM: vprice1@alltel.net
AF: Advanced Environmental Solutions, LLC, 407 West Main Street, Lexington, SC 29072 United States
AU: Dai, Z
EM: zdai@alltel.net
AF: Advanced Environmental Solutions, LLC, 407 West Main Street, Lexington, SC 29072 United States
AU: Heffner, D
EM: dheffner@advenvsoln.com
AF: Advanced Environmental Solutions, LLC, 407 West Main Street, Lexington, SC 29072 United States
AU: Temples, T J
EM: ttemples@ssc.rr.com
AF: Advanced Environmental Solutions, LLC, 407 West Main Street, Lexington, SC 29072 United States
AU: Nicholson, T J
EM: tjn@nrc.gov
AF: United states Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 11545 Rockville Pike , Rockville, MD 20852 United States
AB: This talk discusses a Nuclear Regulatory Commission-sponsored research project designed to develop an integrated and systematic strategy for monitoring ground-water flow and transport through the unsaturated zone to the underlying water-table aquifer at waste disposal sites. The goal is to provide scientifically-based guidance for monitoring across a wide range of geologic settings, waste compositions, and site designs. The monitoring will specifically support performance assessment studies and modeling. The research objectives include: (1) the strategy will couple performance confirmation monitoring to site characterization and performance assessment, and will consist of an ordered and logical sequence of procedures; (2) the research will develop the technical bases as citable references, identified guidance and analytical tools, and test case applications of the developed integrated ground-water monitoring strategy for confirming performance of nuclear waste and decommissioning sites; (3) this strategy will focus on identifying and monitoring critical performance indicators (e.g., water contents over time in the unsaturated zone, and ground-water potentials in the saturated zone) of the hydrologic system; and (4) the strategy will demonstrate the connection between performance indicators and site performance. The monitoring strategy has been developed in draft form, and the testing phase of this work is beginning. The test plan includes: 1. develop testing objectives; 2. develop success criteria based on objectives; 3. select test datasets from field sites; 4. apply the draft strategy to field data; 5. feed-back for strategy improvement. Testing objectives will include: 1. develop rules for selection of performance indicators; 2. evaluate efficient methods to develop conceptual site models; 3. develop rules for selection of monitoring points (in the spatial and temporal domain) and rules for identification of monitoring approaches (e.g., geophysical methods) and techniques; 4. develop criteria for "essential elements of information" (minimal data requirements); 5. develop rules for data analysis - selection and application of appropriate data review, analysis and statistical testing methods (e.g., trend analyses) and; 6. integrate rules into a graded approach to application of the monitoring strategy. This paper will lay out the strategy and test plan in more detail, and discuss testing progress.
UR: http://www.advenvsoln.com/agu05H8b.htm
DE: 1829 Groundwater hydrology
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly