Quintessa and URS Corporation have been awarded a contract to develop groundwater flow models in the vicinity of the D1225 Shaft at Dounreay, a historic facility for Intermediate Level radioactive Waste (ILW).
These models will support the Post-Closure Safety Case for the Shaft following retrieval of the waste by feeding in to the revised hydrogeological conceptualisation at the district, site and shaft scales, recently constructed by Quintessa. The models will also act as predictive tools to assist in the design and installation of a low permeability grout curtain around the Shaft. The groundwater models will be developed on two length scales:
- a 'district' scale model of the Dounreay site catchment area; and
- a 'local' scale model of the area immediately surrounding the Shaft.
The models will be constructed using the state of the art groundwater flow and transport modelling package 'FEFLOW'.
Image Courtesy of Dounreay Restoration Site Ltd.