Modeling the groundwater flow of a 90Sr plume through a permeable reactive barrier installed at the Chalk River Laboratories, Chalk River, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

In 1998, a passive remediation system known as the wall and curtain was installed at the Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario, Canada, to prevent a 90Sr plume present in the lower part of a 12 m thick aquifer from discharging into a nearby swamp. To provide a better understanding of the groundwater flow-through (or throughput) and the capture zone of the system, a model was constructed using the three-dimensional finite element numerical computer code HydroGeoSphere. The model was calibrated with observed hydraulic head values. The results show a good agreement between the simulated and observed heads and the capture zone width and depth determined for two data sets from different dates. Further physical and geochemical data will be collected in order to refine the current model.