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Discriminating Underground Nuclear Explosions Leading To Late‐Time Radionuclide Gas Seeps
Author(s) -
Harp Dylan R.,
Bourret S. Michelle,
Stauffer Philip H.,
Kwicklis Edward M.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2019gl086654
Subject(s) - radionuclide , fracture (geology) , geology , amplitude , atmospheric pressure , nuclear explosion , environmental science , porosity , aperture (computer memory) , geotechnical engineering , nuclear physics , physics , optics , acoustics , oceanography
Utilizing historical data from the U.S. nuclear test program and freely available barometric pressure data, we performed an analytical barometric‐pumping efficiency analysis to determine factors resulting in late‐time radionuclide gas seeps from underground nuclear explosions. We considered 16 underground nuclear explosions with similar geology and test setup, of which five resulted in the measurement of late‐time radionuclide gas concentrations at the ground surface. The factors we considered include barometric frequency and amplitude, depth of burial, air‐filled porosity, intact‐rock permeability, fracture aperture, and fracture spacing. The analysis indicates that the best discriminators of late‐time radionuclide gas seeps for these explosions are barometric frequency and amplitude and air‐filled porosity. While geologic information on fracture aperture and spacing is not available for these explosions, the sensitivity of barometric‐pumping efficiency to fracture aperture indicates that it would likely also be a good discriminator.