Uncertainties in the thermodynamics of basalt-oxygen and basalt-water reactions

Conference · Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1983

OSTI ID:5541050

Schweitzer, D G; Davis, M S

A knowledge of basalt-oxygen equilibria and basalt-water equilibria are required to predict the performance of a high-level waste package in a basalt repository. In this report we have evaluated uncertainties in these equilibria using thermodynamic data from two sources, the JANAF Thermochemical Tables (1971) and from Kubaschewski (1974). Our analysis indicates that the uncertainties in the basic thermodynamic data lead to 30 orders of magnitude in uncertainty in the oxygen fugacity for the magnetite-hematite reaction (10/sup -57/ to 10/sup -86/ atm) and about 15 orders of magnitude uncertainty in the hydrogen equilibrium pressure (10/sup -12/ to 10/sup +3/ atm). A vast volume of literature exists on reactions involving magnetite and hematite in water at temperatures pertinent to basalt repositories (50/sup 0/ to 350/sup 0/C). These data show that Fe/sub 3/O/sub 4/ and Fe/sub 2/O/sub 3/ can coexist in water with oxygen fugacities from about 10/sup -4/ to 1 rather than the calculated oxygen fugacities of approx. 10/sup -60/ to 10/sup -30/ assumed in the past. 5 references.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 5541050
• Report Number(s): BNL-NUREG-33579; CONF-8308126-2; ON: DE84001458
• Resource Relation: Conference: NRC research annual review meeting of nuclear waste management research on geochemistry of HLW disposal, Reston, VA, USA, 30 Aug 1983
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
58 GEOSCIENCES
BASALT
ROCK-FLUID INTERACTIONS
HEMATITE
THERMODYNAMICS
MAGNETITE
DATA COVARIANCES
EQUILIBRIUM
OXYGEN
WATER
CHALCOGENIDES
ELEMENTS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
IGNEOUS ROCKS
IRON COMPOUNDS
IRON ORES
IRON OXIDES
MINERALS
NONMETALS
ORES
OXIDE MINERALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
ROCKS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
VOLCANIC ROCKS
052002* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Disposal & Storage
580300 - Mineralogy
Petrology
& Rock Mechanics- (-1989)