Evaporative Evolution of Brines from Synthetic Topoah Spring Tuff Pore Water, Yucca Mountain, NV
We are investigating the evaporation of pore water representative of the designated high-level-nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain, NV to predict the range of brine compositions that may contact waste containers. These brines could form potentially corrosive thin films on the containers and impact their long-term integrity. Here we report the geochemistry of a relatively complex synthetic Topopah Spring Tuff pore water that was progressively evaporated in a series of experiments. The experiments were conducted in a closed vessel, heated to 95 C, and purged with atmospheric CO{sub 2}. Aqueous samples of the evaporating solution were taken and analyzed to determine the evolving water chemistry, and the final solid precipitate was analyzed by X-ray diffraction. The synthetic Topopah Spring Tuff water evolved towards a complex brine that contains about 3 mol% SO{sub 4}, and 2 mol% Ca, 3 mol% K, 5 mol% NO{sub 3}, 40 mol% Cl, and 47 mol% Na. Trends in the solution data and identification of CaSO{sub 4} solids (anhydrite and bassanite) suggest that fluorite, carbonate, sulfate, and Mg-silicate precipitation minimize the corrosion potential of ''sulfate type pore water'' by removing F, Ca, and Mg during the early stages of evaporation.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 15003133
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC-148827; TRN: US0402451
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2002 Fall Meeting of the Materials Research Society, Boston, MA (US), 12/02/2002--12/06/2002; Other Information: PBD: 26 Nov 2002
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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