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Development of a design package for a viscous barrier at the Savannah River Site

Conference ·
OSTI ID:446325
; ;  [1]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA (United States). Earth Sciences Div.
This paper describes elements of a design for a pilot-scale field demonstration of a new subsurface containment technology for waste isolation developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), which uses a new generation of barrier liquids for permeation grouting. The demonstration site was Retention Basin 281-3H, a shallow catchment basin at the Savannah River Site (SRS), originally built to control contaminated runoff for the H Reactor, and which has been contaminated mainly by radionuclides. The LBNL viscous barrier technology employs barrier liquids which, when injected into the subsurface, produce chemically benign nearly impermeable barriers through a very large increase in viscosity. The initially low-viscosity liquids are emplaced through multiple injection points in the subsurface and the intersecting plumes merge and completely surround the contaminant source and/or plume. Once in place, they gel or cure to form a nearly impermeable barrier. The barrier liquid to be used in this application is Colloidal Silica (CS), an aqueous suspension of silica microspheres in a stabilizing electrolyte. It has excellent durability characteristics, poses no health hazard, is practically unaffected by filtration, and is chemically and biologically benign.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC03-76SF00098
OSTI ID:
446325
Report Number(s):
LBNL--39487; CONF-970208--10; ON: DE97003477
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English