Conceptual Design and Requirements for Characterization and Field Test Boreholes: Deep Borehole Field Test

Technical Report · Thu Sep 24 00:00:00 EDT 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1431319· OSTI ID:1431319

Kuhlman, Kristopher L. ^[1]; Brady, Patrick Vane ^[1]; MacKinnon, Robert J. ^[1]; Heath, Jason E. ^[1]; Herrick, Courtney G. ^[1]; Jensen, Richard P. ^[1]; Rigali, Mark J. ^[1]; Hadgu, Teklu ^[1]; Sevougian, S. David ^[1]; Birkholzer, Jens ^[2]; Freifeld, Barry M. ^[2]; Daley, Tom ^[2]

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1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Deep Borehole Disposal (DBD) of high-level radioactive wastes has been considered an option for geological isolation for many years (Hess et al. 1957). Recent advances in drilling technology have decreased costs and increased reliability for large-diameter (i.e., ≥50 cm [19.7”]) boreholes to depths of several kilometers (Beswick 2008; Beswick et al. 2014). These advances have therefore also increased the feasibility of the DBD concept (Brady et al. 2009; Cornwall 2015), and the current field test, introduced herein, is a demonstration of the DBD concept and these advances.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Fuel Cycle Technologies (NE-5)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1431319
• Report Number(s): SAND2016-5692R; 643510
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES