Discrete fracture simulations of the hydrogeology at Koongarra, Northern Territory, Australia

This paper reports that the U.S. Department of Energy is studying the Alligator Rivers Natural Analogue Project site at Koongarra, Northern Territory, Australia to investigate and simulate radionuclide migration in fractured rocks. Discrete fracture simulations were conducted within a cubic volume (180-m edge length) of fractured Cahill Formation schist oriented with one major axis parallel to the trend of the Koongarra Fault. Five hundred fractures are simulated within this domain. The fractures have a mean orientation parallel to the idealized plane of the Koongarra Fault dipping 55 degrees SE. Simple flow modeling of this fracture network was conducted by assigning constant head boundaries to upgradient and downgradient vertical faces of the cube, which trend parallel to the fault. No-flow boundaries were assigned to all other faces. The fracture network allows hydraulic communication across the block, in spite of relatively low fracture density across the block