Evaluation report of Task 9C based on comparisons and analyses of modelling results for the ONKALO REPRO-TDE experiment

Soler, J. M.*; Keklinen, P.*; Pulkkanen, V.-M.*; Moreno, L.*; Iraola, A.*; Trinchero, P.*; Hokr, M.*; ha, J.*; Havlov, V.*; Trpkoov, D.*; et al.

SKB TR-21-09, 204 Pages, 2021/11

Task 9C of the SKB Task Force on Modelling of Groundwater Flow and Transport of Solutes (Task Force GWFTS) was the third subtask within Task 9 and focused on (1) predictive and (2) back-analysis modelling of experimental results from the REPRO-TDE in situ diffusion experiment. The test was performed at a depth of about 400 m in the ONKALO underground research facility in Finland. Synthetic groundwater containing radionuclide tracers (HTO, Cl-36, Na-22, Ba-133, Cs-134) was circulated for about four years in a packed-off interval of the so-called injection borehole. Tracer activities were additionally monitored in two observation boreholes arranged as a right-angled triangle and located at about 0.1 m wall-to-wall from the injection borehole. Eleven modelling teams participated in the modelling exercise, using different model concepts and approaches. Three main types of models were applied: (1) An analytical solution to the diffusion-retention equations, (2) continuum-porous-medium-type numerical models, and (3) microstructure-based models. The predictive model calculations were based on laboratory-based information concerning porosities, diffusion coefficients and sorption partition coefficients available in the task description. Microstructural characterisation of rock samples was also available and used by the teams using microstructure-based models.