Implications of Extended Environmental Multimedia Modeling System (EEMMS) on Water Allocation Management: Tritium Numerical Case Study

Abstract

Tritium waste deposition in air-unsaturated groundwater zones poses great challenges to optimal water allocation. This paper reviews the research progress of air-unsaturated-groundwater interaction. Traditional interaction studies typically model the fate and migration of pollutants in different regions. This can lead to biased results and simulation errors. The development of air-unsaturated-ground integrated modeling will be a breakthrough and a hotspot in tritium management. In this paper, the fate and migration of tritium leakage is further studied using the existing extended Environment Multimedia Modeling System (EEMMS). Moreover, to better understand its distribution in three zones, using tritium as a typical pollutant, it is necessary to consider its characteristics in different zones, especially its migration from unsaturated zones to groundwater and air zones. The result shows that the tritiated water vapor transfer in unsaturated groundwater areas decreases and part of the tritiated water vapor transfers to atmospheric areas as tritiated gas vapor. Compared with the analytical test accuracy (5 pCi mL−1), the accuracy of the tritium modeling using the finite element method can reach the minimum concentration limit of 0 pCi mL−1. The study of its distribution in air-unsaturated-groundwater zones can provide reference for other similar tritium management or NAPLs distribution across multimedia area.