Courses: The GoldSim Contaminant Transport Module:

Unit 1 - Getting Started

Lesson 4 - Understanding the Difference Between Contaminant Transport Module Versions

There are two different versions of the Contaminant Transport Module that can be licensed and added to GoldSim: the CT (Contaminant Transport) Module and the RT (Radionuclide Transport) Module.  Your copy of GoldSim will have neither, one or the other (but not both), depending on your license. 

You can easily see which (if any) module you have by opening GoldSim, selecting Model|Options… from the main menu and selecting the Modules tab. All modules that you are licensed to use will be displayed in this dialog:

 Note: Obviously, you must already have a copy of GoldSim (and one of these modules) to take this Course.  If you do not, the final Lesson in this Unit will discuss how you can obtain one.

The CT Module provides all of the features and capabilities that most contaminant transport modelers will need.  The RT Module is an expanded version of the CT Module.  It includes all of the capabilities of the CT Module, along with several additional features designed to facilitate simulation of radioactive waste disposal facilities and the transport of radionuclides in the environment.

In particular, the RT Module provides several additional features, the most important being the following:

  • The RT Module allows decay chains (collections of daughter products) to be simulated (one species can be specified to transform into one or more other species via a first-order reaction).  In addition, to support modeling of radioactive decay chains, the RT Module also allows you to utilize an extensive built-in database of radionuclide decay data.  The CT Module, on the other hand, allows you to model a first-order reaction (i.e., a decay rate), but you cannot specify reaction (daughter) products.
  • The RT Module provides a special element called a Source.  The Source element can be used to simulate the complex release mechanisms of contaminants from engineered systems.  This is particularly useful when simulating the behavior of proposed or existing waste disposal facilities, which have as part of their design engineered packages or containers in which the waste is placed prior to disposal. 

For almost all of the Course, we will discuss topics that are common to both the CT Module and the RT Module (and therefore having the CT Module is sufficient for taking this Course).  Features specific to the RT Module (e.g., modeling decay chains and using the Source element) will be discussed towards the end of the Course (in two standalone Units: Unit 10 and Unit 11), which can be skipped if you are only interested in using the CT Module.