Thermally Driven Gas Flow Beneath Yucca Mountain, Nevada

Conference · Sat Nov 30 23:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:138217

Amter, Steven ^[1]; Lu, Ning ^[1]; Ross, Benjamin ^[1]

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1. Disposal Safety, Inc., Washington, DC (United States)

A coupled thermopneumatic model is developed for simulating heat transfer, rock-gas flow and carbon-14 travel time beneath Yucca Mountain, NV. The aim of this work is to understand the coupling of heat transfer and gas flow. Heat transfer in and near the potential repository region depends on several factors, including the geothermal gradient, climate, and local sources of heat such as radioactive wastes. Our numerical study shows that small temperature changes at the surface can change both the temperature field and the gas flow pattern beneath Yucca Mountain. A lateral temperature difference of 1 K is sufficient to create convection cells hundreds of meters in size. Differences in relative humidities between gas inside the mountain and air outside the mountain also significantly affect the gas flow field.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition. Office of Integrated Waste Management
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 138217
• Report Number(s): SAND--91-7030C; CONF-911213--11-Draft; ON: DE92000792
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
58 GEOSCIENCES
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
CARBON 14
CLIMATES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CONVECTION
FLOW MODELS
GAS FLOW
GEOTHERMAL GRADIENTS
HEAT SOURCES
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
HUMIDITY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
POROSITY
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
STRATIGRAPHY
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS
THERMODYNAMIC MODEL
YUCCA MOUNTAIN
Yucca Mountain Project