INTERA Incorporated services

Site characterization studies of potential or existing sites for isolating radioactive or other wastes require careful program design and planning, methodical plan implementation, accurate and thorough fieldwork, and detailed analysis of the site characterization data that is collected. INTERA`s experience includes planning and implementing geological and hydrogeological testing programs for radioactive waste disposal facilities around the globe. We are internationally recognized for our expertise in designing, managing, and conducting geologic formation testing programs and have developed and employed some of the most technologically advanced testing equipment and interpretive software in the world.

In the mid 1970s, INTERA began to apply sophisticated petroleum reservoir engineering technology to the area of groundwater flow and transport. Under contract to the United States Geological Survey, we developed the first groundwater code to couple flow, energy transport, and contaminant transport in three dimensions, accounting for density and viscosity effects. In 1976, we modified this code into a radionuclide transport code, called SWIP, to support the evaluation of radioactive waste repositories.

Assessing the performance of a waste isolation facility, whether it be a mined geologic repository for disposal of radioactive wastes or a geologic formation selected for the injection and storage of industrial wastes such as CO2, requires identification and analysis of the physical processes (e.g., two-phase flow in a repository horizon) and the events that could cause release of the waste to the accessible environment. Furthermore, since regulatory requirements are typically probabilistic in nature, an estimate of the likelihood of each process and event is required. Identification of key processes and events, along with estimation of their probabilities, are accomplished through the development of scenarios that represent potential future events that can occur and disturb the waste isolation facility, such as human intrusion, tectonics, or volcanism.