We study the dynamics of a radioactive species flowing through a porous material, within the continuous-time random-walk (CTRW) approach to the modeling of stochastic transport processes. Emphasis is given to the case where radioactive decay is coupled to anomalous diffusion in locally heterogeneous media, such as porous sediments or fractured rocks. In this framework, we derive the distribution of the number of jumps each particle can perform before a decay event. On the basis of the obtained results, we compute the moments of the cumulative particle distribution, which can be then used to quantify the overall displacement and spread of the contaminant species.

• Received 20 November 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.77.041115