Abstraction of Drift Seepage

This model report documents the abstraction of drift seepage, conducted to provide seepage relevant parameters and their probability distributions for use in Total System Performance Assessment for License Application (TSPA-LA). Drift seepage refers to the flow of liquid water into waste emplacement drifts. Water that seeps into drifts may contact waste packages and potentially mobilize radionuclides, and may result in advective transport of radionuclides through breached waste packages [Risk Information to Support Prioritization of Performance Assessment Models (BSC 2003 [DIRS 168796], Section 3.3.2)]. The unsaturated rock layers overlying and hosting the repository form a natural barrier that reduces the amount of water entering emplacement drifts by natural subsurface processes. For example, drift seepage is limited by the capillary barrier forming at the drift crown, which decreases or even eliminates water flow from the unsaturated fractured rock into the drift. During the first few hundred years after waste emplacement, when above-boiling rock temperatures will develop as a result of heat generated by the decay of the radioactive waste, vaporization of percolation water is an additional factor limiting seepage. Estimating the effectiveness of these natural barrier capabilities and predicting the amount of seepage into drifts is an important aspect of assessing the performance of the repository. The TSPA-LA therefore includes a seepage component that calculates the amount of seepage into drifts [Total System Performance Assessment (TSPA) Model/Analysis for the License Application (BSC 2004 [DIRS 168504], Section 6.3.3.1)]. The TSPA LA calculation is performed with a probabilistic approach that accounts for the spatial and temporal variability and inherent uncertainty of seepage-relevant properties and processes. Results are used for subsequent TSPA-LA components that may handle, for example, waste package corrosion or radionuclide transport.