Numerical modeling of the hydrogeological effects of ONKALO in 2009

The underground rock characterization facility ONKALO is currently being excavated in the bedrock of the Olkiluoto Island. The construction work of the ONKALO begun in 2004 and the tunnel will remain open for the whole period of the operation of the planned repository for spent nuclear fuel. The open tunnels cause a disturbance on the local groundwater system. The leakage water flowing into the open tunnels withdraw water from the bedrock and locally alter the natural flow routes. One of the possible consequences of the convergent flow towards the ONKALO is that the highly saline deeper groundwater might be drawn towards the ONKALO, this process is called upconing. The purpose of this work is to estimate the possible upconing of the deep saline waters up to the repository level. A numerical flow and transport simulation is conducted with conservative approach to ensure overestimation of the effects of the ONKALO. In this study a 3D model of the hydrogeological system of the Olkiluoto is used as the basis for numerical flow and transport modeling of the saline groundwater movement in the bedrock of Olkiluoto. The numerical modelling is conducted using the commercial Comsol 3.5a code. The modelled geometry of the ONKALO includes the already excavated ONKALO and the extension according to the layout plan used in this work. The ONKALO and the hydrogeological zones are simplified for this study. In addition the used hydrogeological zones are modelled as 3D blocks with constant thickness of 50 meters. With the used boundary conditions upconing occurs even with the lowest leakage values. The influence of the leakage water is small on the maximum TDS-value at the depth near ONKALO. In this work this phenomenon is explained by the increase in the fresh water infiltration rate as the leakage water is increased, since the low density fresh water is transported more easily downwards than the high density saline water transported upwards towards the ONKALO. Further away from the ONKALO the maximum TDS values occurred with the largest leakage flows. (orig.)