Barometric gas transport along geologic faults and its application to nuclear test-ban monitoring
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States); and others
Nuclear explosions produce unique but rapidly decaying radionuclide gases that potentially can be used in the context of a test-ban monitoring program to identify clandestine underground testing activity. To evaluate the upward transport of such gases from an underground explosion, two, non-radioactive gas tracers, spanning a 49-fold difference in species mass, were released in a 400-m-deep, chemical explosive detonation. The more massive tracer was first detected on a fault 50 days following the detonation while the other tracer was detected 375 days after release. Models indicate that both the time scale of arrival and chromatographic behavior of transport are characteristic of barometrically induced flow in a fracture- matrix regime. For a 1-kiloton fission explosion, simulations predict that short-lived isotopes of argon and xenon would be detectable on nearby geologic faults.
- OSTI ID:
- 370689
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960376--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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