Open AccessResearch by ESS Division for the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations: Progress report, January-June 1985
Author(s) -
D. T. Vaniman
Publication year - 1987
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/60339
Subject(s) - clinoptilolite , radioactive waste , petrography , diffusion , mineralogy , geology , tracer , dispersion (optics) , sorption , zeolite , geochemistry , environmental science , chemistry , waste management , thermodynamics , physics , nuclear physics , engineering , biochemistry , optics , organic chemistry , adsorption , catalysis
Petrographic research for the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations focused on xenolithic variability in the Topopah Spring Member and on variations of clinoptilolite composition at Yucca Mountain. Zeolite and smectite occurrences were considered in terms of their relation to a disturbed zone beneath the potential repository, and mineral stability experiments have produced a new clinoptilolite structure as a result of prolonged heating at low temperature. Limitations were defined on the abundance of erionite and of sulfur. X-ray diffraction studies lead to improved analytical methods. Progress was made in the comparative study of mineralogy in sand ramps and in faults. Geological modeling considered the differences of the diffusion of nonsorbing tracers in vertically and in horizontally fractured rock. Modeling also treated the diffusion of a nonsorbing tracer in devitrified and in zeolitized rock. The results of these experiments in all cases show relatively symmetrical two-dimensional diffusion patterns. Preliminary calculations compare the dispersion/diffusion of nonsorbing Tc with the dispersion/diffusion/sorption of U. 27 refs., 20 figs., 5 tabs