Dual permeability variably saturated flow and contaminant transport modeling of a nuclear waste repository with capillary barrier protection

The main part of this paper evaluates the capillary barrier based structure on the Richard - Litoměřice nuclear waste facility in the Czech Republic. The barrier structure is evaluated for various cases under normal regime flow conditions and under emergency conditions caused by intense infiltration. The capillary barrier is based on the unsaturated hydraulic properties of gravel. A failure of the barrier function due to saturation is successfully simulated, and is presented here.