Results of brine flow testing and disassembly of a crushed salt/bentonite block seal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Tech. Reps., Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
The Small-Scale Seal Performance Tests, Series C, a set of in situ experiments conducted at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, are designed to evaluate the performance of various seal materials emplaced in large (0.9-m-diameter) boreholes. This report documents the results of fluid (brine) flow testing and water and clay content analyses performed on one emplaced seal comprised of 100% salt blocks and 50%/50% crushed salt/bentonite blocks and disassembled after nearly three years of brine injection testing. Results from the water content analyses of 212 samples taken from within this seal show uniform water content throughout the 50%/50% salt/bentonite blocks with saturations about 100%. Clay content analyses from the 100% salt endcaps of the seal show a background clay content of about 1% by weight uniformly distributed, with the exception of samples taken at the base of the seal at the borehole wall interface. These samples show clay contents up to 3% by weight, which suggests some bentonite may have migrated under pressure to that interface. Results of the brine-flow testing show that the permeability to brine for this seal was about 2 to 3 {times} 10{sup {minus}4} darcy (2 to 3 {times} 10{sup {minus}16} m{sup 2}).
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 10145271
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-93-0808; ON: DE94010660; BR: GB0103012; TRN: 94:013845
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Mar 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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