Reliability assessment of underground shaft closure
- RE/SPEC, Inc., Rapid City, SD (United States)
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
The intent of the WIPP, being constructed in the bedded geologic salt deposits of Southeastern New Mexico, is to provide the technological basis for the safe disposal of radioactive Transuranic (TRU) wastes generated by the defense programs of the United States. In determining this technological basis, advanced reliability and structural analysis techniques are used to determine the probability of time-to-closure of a hypothetical underground shaft located in an argillaceous salt formation and filled with compacted crushed salt. Before being filled with crushed salt for sealing, the shaft provides access to an underground facility. Reliable closure of the shaft depends upon the sealing of the shaft through creep closure and recompaction of crushed backfill. Appropriate methods are demonstrated to calculate cumulative distribution functions of the closure based on laboratory determined random variable uncertainty in salt creep properties.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 10106449
- Report Number(s):
- SAND--94-2683C; CONF-9505115--2; ON: DE95004526; BR: GB0103012
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Analyses of backfilled transuranic wastes disposal rooms
Design evaluation: Structural calculations for the construction and salt handling shaft and the waste handling shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)