Geofirma Engineering has been responsible for all the detailed flow and transport modelling required for the Postclosure Safety Assessment of the OPG Low & Intermediate Level Waste DGR proposed for the Bruce site.
Geofirma developed a detailed water balance to evaluate the impacts of potential future construction on a wetland in Southern Ontario.
A coupled two-phase flow and geomechanical model was used to predict the development of excavation damage around the HG-A tunnel and then model the damaged zone permeability.
Geofirma was contracted to prepare engineering and modelling studies to assess the feasibility of increasing the pressure (delta pressuring) of several underground natural gas storage reservoirs.
T2GGM consists of a gas generation model (GGM), which calculates rates of gas generation and water consumption within a deep geologic repository (DGR) due to corrosion and microbial degradation of the waste packages, integrated with the widely used two-phase flow code TOUGH2.
Part of the Eurotom Fate Of Repository GasEs (FORGE) project, the FORGE benchmark modelling examined the transport of gas in a hypothetical repository, with the objective of improving gas migration modelling to support performance assessments at the repository-scale . Nine different groups contributed to the benchmark modelling exercise with different codes and modelling approaches, including Geofirma representing NWMO.
This modelling project represents one of the first efforts to understand the potential impacts of future glaciations deep geological repositories for radioactive waste. The effects of glaciation were addressed using a three-dimensional (3-D) numerical model of a hypothetical repository in the Canadian Shield, and coupling flow to mechanical loading from a continental glacier.
Geofirma’s role is to protect the City of San Diego’s interests by reviewing proposals for site cleanup by the responsible party, analyzing geochemical data, conducting simulations, and proposing approaches to improve the success of the aquifer remediation.
Bentonite-sand sealing systems are an important component in many proposed deep geological repositories for radioactive waste. To improve our understanding of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of this material, Geofirma was retained by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to develop a model to simulate the SEALEX experiments on sand-bentonite.
Improving Abandonment ProcessesIn 2016, the Canadian Society for Gas Migration, with funding from Natural Resources Canada, initiated a Technology Roadmap to Address Wellbore Leakage. Geofirma developed the wellbore abandonment section, presenting a high-level overview of the methods and materials used to plug and abandon wells, a synopsis of current research, and the issues that impede the adoption of new technologies to improve abandoned wellbore integrity.