Mathematical Simulation Of Sediment And Radionuclide Transport In Surface Waters

The study objective of "The Mathematical Simulation of Sediment and Radionuclide Transport in Surface Waters" is to synthesize and test radionuclide transport models capable of realistically assessing radionuclide transport in various types of surface water bodies by including the sediment-radionuclide interactions. These interactions include radionuclide adsorption by sediment; desorption from sediment into water; and transport, deposition, and resuspension of sorbed radionuclides controlled by the sediment movements. During FY-1979, the modification of sediment and contaminant (radionuclide) transport model, FETRA, was completed to make it applicable to coastal waters. The model is an unsteady, two-dimensional (longitudinal and lateral) model that consists of three submodels (for sediment, dissolved-contaminant, and particulate-contaminant transport), coupled to include the sediment-contaminant interactions. In estuaries, flow phenomena and consequent sediment and radionuclide migration are often three-dimensional in nature mainly because of nonuniform channel cross-sections, salinity intrusion, and lateral-flow circulation. Thus, an unsteady, three-dimensional radionuclide transport model for estuaries is also being synthesized by combining and modifying a PNL unsteady hydrothermal model and FETRA. These two radionuclide transport models for coastal waters and estuaries will be applied to actual sites to examine the validity of the codes.