Radionuclide transport in sandstones with WIPP brine

Abstract

Retardation factors (R) have been measured for the transport of /sup 3/H, /sup 95m/Tc, and /sup 85/Sr in WIPP brine using St. Peter, Berea, Kayenta, and San Felipe sandstone cores. If tritium is assumed to have R=1, /sup 95m/Tc has R=1.0 to 1.3 and therefore is essentially not retarded. Strontium-85 has R = 1.0 to 1.3 on St. Peter, Berea, and Kayenta, but R=3 on San Felipe. This is attributed to sorption on the matrix material of San Felipe, which has 45 volume % matrix compared with 1 to 10 volume % for the others. Retardation factors (R/sub s/) for /sup 85/Sr calculated from static sorption measurements are unity for all the sandstones. Therefore, the static and transport results for /sup 85/Sr disagree in the case of San Felipe, but agree for St. Peter, Berea, and Kayenta