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Investigating the age distribution of fracture discharge using multiple environmental tracers, Bedrichov Tunnel, Czech Republic

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Abstract

The transit time distribution (TTD) of discharge collected from fractures in the Bedrichov Tunnel, Czech Republic, is investigated using lumped parameter models and multiple environmental tracers. We utilize time series of \(\delta ^{18}O\), \(\delta ^{2}\)H and \(^3\)H along with CFC measurements from individual fractures in the Bedrichov Tunnel of the Czech Republic to investigate the TTD, and the uncertainty in estimated mean travel time in several fracture networks of varying length and discharge. We compare several TTDs, including the dispersion distribution, the exponential distribution, and a developed TTD which includes the effects of matrix diffusion. The effect of seasonal recharge is explored by comparing several seasonal weighting functions to derive the historical recharge concentration. We identify best fit mean ages for each TTD by minimizing the error-weighted, multi-tracer \(\chi ^{2}\) residual for each seasonal weighting function. We use this methodology to test the ability of each TTD and seasonal input function to fit the observed tracer concentrations, and the effect of choosing different TTD and seasonal recharge functions on the mean age estimation. We find that the estimated mean transit time is a function of both the assumed TTD and seasonal weighting function. Best fits as measured by the \(\chi ^2\) value were achieved for the dispersion model using the seasonal input function developed here for two of the three modeled sites, while at the third site, equally good fits were achieved with the exponential model and the dispersion model and our seasonal input function. The average mean transit time for all TTDs and seasonal input functions converged to similar values at each location. The sensitivity of the estimated mean transit time to the seasonal weighting function was equal to that of the TTD. These results indicated that understanding seasonality of recharge is at least as important as the uncertainty in the flow path distribution in fracture networks and that unique identification of the TTD and mean transit time is difficult given the uncertainty in the recharge function. However, the mean transit time appears to be relatively robust to the structural model uncertainty. The results presented here should be applicable to other studies using environmental tracers to constrain flow and transport properties in fractured rock systems.

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Acknowledgments

The work described in this paper was conducted within the context of the international DECOVALEX 2015 Project. The authors are grateful to the funding organizations who supported the work. The views expressed in the paper are, however, those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the funding organizations. Technical University of Liberec (TUL) has been supported by the Radioactive Waste Repository Authority of the Czech Republic (SURAO), under contract No. SO2013-077. The results of the TUL authors were also obtained through the financial support of the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic (MSMT) from the project LO1201 in the framework of the targeted support of the “National Programme for Sustainability I.” BGR’s work was supported by the BMWi (Bundesministerium fur Wirtschaft und Energie, Berlin). Sandia National Laboratory was supported under the DOE-Used Fuel Disposition campaign. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences, University of Montana, 32 Campus Dr #1296, Missoula, MT, USA

    W. Payton Gardner

  2. Technical University of Liberec, Studentska 2, 46117, Liberec, Czech Republic

    Milan Hokr & Ales Balvin

  3. Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, Stilleweg 2, 30655, Hanover, Germany

    Hua Shao & Herbert Kunz

  4. Sandia National Laboratories, 1515 Eubank Blvd SE, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Yifeng Wang

Authors
  1. W. Payton Gardner
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  2. Milan Hokr
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  3. Hua Shao
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  4. Ales Balvin
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  5. Herbert Kunz
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  6. Yifeng Wang
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Correspondence to W. Payton Gardner.

Additional information

This article is part of a Topical Collection in Environmental Earth Sciences on “DECOVALEX 2015”, guest edited by Jens T Birkholzer, Alexander E Bond, John A Hudson, Lanru Jing, Hua Shao and Olaf Kolditz.

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Gardner, W.P., Hokr, M., Shao, H. et al. Investigating the age distribution of fracture discharge using multiple environmental tracers, Bedrichov Tunnel, Czech Republic. Environ Earth Sci 75, 1374 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-6160-x

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