Numerical simulation of 226Ra migration and decay in a saturated porous medium

numerical simulation of transport and radioactive decay of 226ra as a constant product of 238u decay from a simulated storage facility containing uranium tailings is presented in this work. the simulation domain consists of six subsoil layers through which one of the uranium daughters 226ra is migrating as well as decaying. the methodology consists in first calculating the 226ra velocity field through the computational domain by solving the momentum and mass conservation equation using darcy′s law. the transport equation is then solved to obtain the extent of the contaminant′s migration. the solution is obtained with the finite-element method. results showed that the estimated 226ra migration time through 200 meters of soil was about five hundred years.