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Cryogenic Drilling: A New Drilling Method for Environmental Remediation
Author(s) -
Simon Rafael D.,
Cooper George A.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
groundwater monitoring and remediation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-6592
pISSN - 1069-3629
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6592.1996.tb00142.x
Subject(s) - drilling , borehole , environmental remediation , drilling fluid , hanford site , savannah river site , environmental science , drilling engineering , petroleum engineering , engineering , waste management , geotechnical engineering , mechanical engineering , contamination , radioactive waste , ecology , biology
Cryogenic drilling is a technique developed at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, for drilling in unstable sediments of environmental monitoring, for characterizing, and for remediation wells, The method uses standard air rotary drilling techniques, but with cold nitrogen rather than ambient air as the circulating fluid in order to freeze and stabilize the borehole wall. Several laboratory and full‐scale field tests have been performed. A.52‐foot‐deep (16 m) soil boring and 24 foot (7 m) monitoring well have been drilled as part of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Site Characterization Project. Continued testing and refinement of the equipment and operational method are in progress. The method has been proposed for use as part of the Department of Energy (DOE) weapons site cleanup at locations with unstable sediments such as Hanford, Sandia, and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL).