[en] Anoxic corrosion and microbial degradation of contact-handled transuranic waste may produce sufficient quantities of gas over a long time period to generate high pressure in the disposal rooms at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) repository. Dissipation of pressure by outward gas flow will be inhibited by the low permeability of the surrounding rock and by capillary forces that resist gas penetration into this water-saturated rock. Threshold pressure is the gas pressure required to overcome capillary resistance to initial gas penetration and to the development of interconnected gas pathways that would outward gas flow. The primary objectives of this study are to estimate the magnitude of threshold pressure in the bedded salt that surrounds the WIPP repository and to evaluate the role this parameter plays in controlling the outward flow of waste-generated gas. 54 refs., 9 figs., 4 tabs

[en] The objective of this paper is to provide a general overview of hydrologic conditions at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) by describing several key hydrologic studies that have been carried out as part of the site characterization program over the last 20 years. The paper is composed of three parts: background information about general objectives of the WIPP project; information about the geologic and hydrologic setting of the facility; and information about three aspects of the hydrologic system that are important to understanding the long-term performance of the WIPP facility. For additional detailed information, the reader is referred to the references cited in the text

[en] Variable-density groundwater flow was studied near the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southeastern New Mexico. An analysis of the relative magnitude of pressure-related and density-related flow-driving forces indicates that density-related gravity effects are not significant at the plant and to the west but are significant in areas to the north, northeast, and south. A regional-scale model of variable-density groundwater flow in the Culebra Dolomite member of the Rustler Formation indicates that the flow velocities are relatively rapid west of the site and extremely slow east and northeast of the site. In the transition zone between those two extremes, which includes the plant, velocities are highly variable. Sensitivity simulations indicates that the central and western parts of the region, including the plant, are fairly well isolated from the eastern and northeastern boundaries. Vertical-flux simulations indicate that as much as 25% of total inflow to the Culebra could be entering as vertical flow, with most of this flow occurring west of the plant. A simple cross-sectional model was developed to examine the flow system as it drains through time following recharge during a past glacial pluvial. This model indicates that the system as a whole drains very slowly and that it apparently could have sustained flow from purely transient drainage following recharge of the system during the Pleistocene

[en] This Experimental Plan provides a conceptual description of a proposed series of tracer tests to be conducted in the Culebra Dolomite Member of the Rustler Formation at the WIPP site. The new tracer tests are intended to address deficiencies that have been identified both in the performance and interpretation of previously conducted tracer tests' Tracer tests were conducted at the H-2 hydropad in 1980, at the H-6 hydropad in 1981, 1982, and 1983, at the H-4 hydropad from 1982 to 1984, at the H-3 hydropad in 1984, and at the H-11 hydropad in 1988. These tests were all performed over the entire 7-m thickness of the Culebra and, therefore, provided no information on the effects of vertical heterogeneity within the Culebra on transport. In addition, each of the previous tracer tests provided data only from 1 to 3 flow paths, allowing calibration of interpretive models but not validation of those models. The tracer tests at the H-3, H-6, and H-11 hydropads have been interpreted using a double-porosity continuum model (SWIFT 11) in which advective transport occurs through a uniform network of fractures while diffusion of tracer from the fractures to the porosity in the rock matrix causes a physical retardation of the transport. External reviewers, particularly participants in the international INTRAVAL program, have suggested that alternative mechanisms, such as fracture channeling, could explain the observed physical retardation and have recommended that additional tracer tests be designed and performed to distinguish among these mechanisms. The previous tracer tests also provided no information on chemical-retardation processes within the Culebra, which have been shown through performance-assessment calculations to have a large impact on cumulative releases of radionuclides from the WIPP to the accessible environment

[en] The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is a repository for transuranic wastes constructed in bedded Permian-age halite in the Delaware Basin, a sedimentary basin in southeastern New Mexico, USA. A drilling scenario has been identified during performance assessment (PA) that could lead to the release of radionuclides to the Culebra Dolomite Member of the Rustler Formation, the most transmissive water-saturated unit above the repository horizon. Were this to occur, the radionuclides would need to be largely contained within the Culebra (or neighboring strata) within the WIPP-site boundary through the period lasting for 10,000 years after repository closure for WIPP to remain in compliance with applicable regulations on allowable releases. Thus, processes affecting transport of radionuclides within the Culebra are of importance to PA

[en] This paper presents the results of numerical simulations of a Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) disposal room. In particular the results show: (1) that an initially empty disposal room will consolidate in 195 years to less than 10% of is initial volume, (2) that if waste, backfill, and gas generation are allowed to generate backstress, room consolidation ceases at about 9--10 MPa backstress and room expansion can occur with backstress slightly higher than 9--10 MPa, (3) that reducing the gas generation potentials and rates by a factor of five, drops the maximum room pressure from about 22 MPa to about 18 MPa and decreases the minimum room porosity from about 0.30 to 0.09, (4) that for two-phase fluid flow, brine and gas are driven out of the disposal room into the nonhalite interbeds and that pressures build in these interbeds near the disposal room, and (5) that the interbed pressurization shown in the two-phase flow can exceed lithostatic pressure of 14.8 MPa, which has the potential of opening preexisting fractures between disposal rooms in about 270 years. This work demonstrates the complex interdependent interactions of creep closure affecting void volume, gas pressurization, brine flow, gas generation, and interbed fracture dilation. Finally, work aiming at achieving greater coupling in the simulations of WIPP disposal rooms is discussed

[en] The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is a US Department of Energy repository for the permanent disposal of approximately 180,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste. The repository is located approximately 650 meters below land surface in a bedded salt formation. Microbial degradation of cellulosics in the waste and anoxic corrosion of steel containers and iron-bearing materials in the waste may generate significant quantities of gas. Experimental and analytic studies are currently under way to evaluate the physical and chemical processes that control gas generation and repository response to gas pressurization. These studies indicate that the impact of waste-generated gas in the repository environment is likely to be characterized by strong coupling of chemical, hydrologic, and structural processes. For example, preliminary laboratory experiments suggest that gas generation rates depend on the availability of brine, which is controlled not only by hydrologic conditions surrounding the repository, but also by the rate at which gas pressure increases within the repository. Also, gas pressure in the repository is influenced by creep closure and consolidation of the room contents, which reduces the void volume available to store gas within a disposal room. However, the backstress of elevated gas pressure on the room walls may be capable of reversing room closure. Rigorous analysis of the coupled processes in the repository-rock system requires iterative development of experiments and models that characterize individual processes and system-scale models that characterize process coupling. Rigorous system-scale models are then used to test more streamlined performance assessment models that contain process and/or geometry simplifications in order to carry out probabilistic compliance calculations. 35 refs., 17 figs

[en] This report summarizes the current understanding of the expected long-term behavior of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) repository and estimates long-term radionuclide doses in a series of six analyses investigating both undisturbed repository (Case I) and performance in response to a relatively high-consequence human intrusion (Case II). It is the result of an intensive effort over a short time. The US Department of Energy (DOE) decided to have Sandia National Laboratories prepare this report as a result of a meeting held January 5, 1989. The conceptual model of the expected long-term behavior of the WIPP repository used in this report was formulated in early to mid January 1989, drawing and understanding developed over the past decade. Numerical modeling of ground-water flow, radionuclide transport, and doses to humans began January 20, 1989 and was completed March 20, 1989. 332 refs., 98 figs., 69 tabs

[en] There are four papers contained in this report which were presented at the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Gas Workshop to provide information about studies of waste-generated gas being conducted for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The paper by Davies et al. provides a general overview of the physical conditions pertinent to waste-generated gas and of the coupling of chemical, hydrologic, and structural processes. The paper by Brush et al. describes specific gas-generation processes and the laboratory- and bin-scale experiments being carried out to characterize these processes. The paper by Mendenhall et al. describes coupled modeling of gas generation and room closure, and provides an analysis of the potential for fracture generation and growth. the paper by Webb describes a series of sensitivity calculations carried out to assess the importance of hydrologic parameters, such as formation permeability and two-phase characteristic curves. Together, these papers provide an overview of the present (September 1991) status of waste-generated gas studies for the WIPP

[en] High resolution infrared spectra of transient species have been measured in the gas phase using tunable semiconductor diode lasers in the 9 and 11 μm regions. The spectra were recorded after a single pass of the laser either along a discharge-flow tube or through a conventional infrared sample cell. The laser spectrum of the chlorine atom at 11.3 μm has been assigned to the ²P₁sub(/)₂ <-²P₃sub(/)₂ fine structure transition and shows several resolved hyperfine features. The spectra of NF₂ arise from absorptions in the ν₁ and ν₃ fundamental bands, and many components in the sup(R)Qsub(K) branches of the ν₁ band have been assigned. Two other transient species have also been detected and tentatively identified as CF₂(ν₃) and HO₂ (ν₃). (orig.)