Natural alteration in the cooling Topopah Spring tuff, Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as an analog to a waste-repository hydrothermal regime

Conference · Mon Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:144910

Levy, S; Valentine, G

Studies of natural hydrothermal alteration in the cooling Topopah Spring tuff suggest a useful ``self-analog`` predictor of fluid-rock interactions within the thermal regime imposed by a potential nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. This tuff has the advantages of representative rock types and appropriate spatial distribution of lithologic features. The cooling history of the tuff spanned the temperature range for any proposed repository thermal load, and the unsaturated-zone hydrologic conditions of the natural alteration would have been similar to existing conditions. A site at northeastern Yucca Mountain, with a prominent vertical fracture zone, has been selected for natural analog studies. The cooling of the tuff and the movement of water in the fracture zone and adjacent matrix will be modeled with the finite element code FEHNM, capable of simulating flow through porous and fractured media using a dual porosity-dual permeability continuum model, with heat transfer and two-phase (vapor and liquid) processes fully accounted for.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 144910
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--93-3691; CONF-9309228--5; ON: DE94002699
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
FINITE ELEMENT METHOD
FLUID FLOW
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
HYDROTHERMAL ALTERATION
ROCK-FLUID INTERACTIONS
TUFF
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
WASTE-ROCK INTERACTIONS
YUCCA MOUNTAIN
Yucca Mountain Project