Yucca mountain nuclear waste repository takes next step - [News]

IEEE Spectrum ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-28
Author(s):  
David P. Amber ◽  
Willie D. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Yucca Mountain ◽  
Nuclear Waste Repository ◽  
Waste Repository

Experimental Investigation of Hydrous Pyrolysis of Diesel Fuel and the Effect of Pyrolysis Products on Performance of the Candidate Nuclear Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain

1993 ◽  
Vol 333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Jackson ◽  
Susan A. Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Diesel Fuel ◽  
Yucca Mountain ◽  
Nuclear Waste Repository ◽  
Hydrothermal Solutions ◽  
Pyrolysis Products ◽  
Analytical Technique ◽  
Hydrous Pyrolysis ◽  
Waste Repository

It is thought that a significant amount of diesel fuel and other hydrocarbon-rich phases may remain inside the candidate nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain after construction and subsequent emplacement of radioactive waste. Although the proposed repository horizon is above the water table, the remnant hydrocarbon phases may react with hydrothermal solutions generated by high temperature conditions that will prevail for a period of time in the repository. The preliminary experimental results of this study show that diesel fuel hydrous pyrolysis is minimal at 200°C and 70 bars. The composition of the diesel fuel remained constant throughout the experiment and the concentration of carboxylic acids in the aqueous phases was only slightly above the detection limit (1–2 ppm) of the analytical technique.

scholarly journals Studies of Altered Vitrophyre for the Prediction of Nuclear waste Repository-Induced Thermal Alteration at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

1983 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schon S. Levy
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Thermal Loading ◽  
Adsorbed Water ◽  
Yucca Mountain ◽  
Nuclear Waste Repository ◽  
Thermal Alteration ◽  
Secondary Porosity ◽  
Hydrous Minerals ◽  
Waste Repository ◽  
A Minor

ABSTRACTNuclear waste emplacement in devitrified volcanic tuff at Yucca Mountain will raise the temperature of surrounding rock for a geologically significant period of time. This study evaluates the susceptibility of an underlying 50 ft-thick vitrophyre to thermal alteration by examining alteration that occurred in the rock as it cooled after deposition. A 10°C temperature rise should have no mineralogical effects on the vitrophyre, but an increase of 60° or more is likely to result in alteration. Expected mineralogic changes in the vitrophyre caused by this amount of thermal loading include crystallization of zeolites and smectite. Alteration will be concentrated in a thin interval near the top of the vitrophyre and along fractures. Adsorbed water and water in preexisting hydrous minerals and in glass may contribute to hydrothermal alteration of underlying vitrophyre. Bulk porosity change would be slight and local porosity increase would probably be restricted to the upper part of the vitrophyre. Although some fracture filling could occur, such a minor sealing effect would be balanced by development of secondary porosity. Zeolites and smectite, newly-crystallized along fluid flow paths below the waste repository, could provide an enhanced sorptive barrier to radionuclide migration.

scholarly journals Chlorine-36 Investigations of Groundwater Infiltration in the Exploratory Studies Facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

1996 ◽  
Vol 465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schön S. Levy ◽  
June T. Fabryka-Martin ◽  
Paul R. Dixon ◽  
Beiling Liu ◽  
H. J. Turin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Transfer ◽  
Finite Element ◽  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Yucca Mountain ◽  
Nuclear Waste Repository ◽  
Travel Times ◽  
Nuclear Testing ◽  
Waste Repository ◽  
Groundwater Infiltration ◽  
Chlorine 36

ABSTRACTChlorine-36, including the natural cosmogenic component and the component produced during atmospheric nuclear testing in the 1950's and 1960's (bomb pulse), is being used as an isotopie tracer for groundwater infiltration studies at Yucca Mountain, a potential nuclear waste repository. Rock samples have been collected systematically in the Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF), and samples were also collected from fractures, faults, and breccia zones. Isotopie ratios indicative of bomb-pulse components in the water (36Cl/Cl values > 1250 × 10-15), signifying less than 40-yr travel times from the surface, have been detected at a few locations within the Topopah Spring Tuff, the candidate host rock for the repository. The specific features associated with the high 36Cl/Cl values are predominantly cooling joints and syngenetic breccias, but most of the sites are in the general vicinity of faults. The non-bomb pulse samples have 36Cl/Cl values interpreted to indicate groundwater travel times of at least a few thousand to possibly several hundred thousand years. Preliminary numerical solute-travel experiments using the FEHM (Finite Element Heat and Mass transfer) code demonstrate consistency between these interpreted ages and the observed 36Cl/Cl values but do not validate the interpretations.

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