Uranium, thorium and trace elements in geologic occurrences as analogues of nuclear waste repository conditions
Conference
·
OSTI ID:60543
Contact zones between intrusive rocks and tuff, basalt, salt and granitic rock were investigated as possible analogues of nuclear waste repository conditions. Results of detailed studies of contacts between quartz monzonite of Laramide age, intrusive into Precambrian gneiss, and a Tertiary monzonite-tuff contact zone indicate that uranium, thorium and other trace elements have not migrated significantly from the more radioactive instrusives into the country rock. Similar observations resulted from preliminary investigations of a rhyodacite dike cutting basalt of the Columbia River plateau and a kimberlitic dike cutting bedded salt of the Salina basin. This lack of radionuclide migration occurred in hydrologic and thermal conditions comparable to, or more severe than those expected in nuclear waste repository environments and over time periods of the order of concern for waste repositories. Attention is now directed to investigation of active hydrothermal systems in candidate repository rock types, and in this regard a preliminary set of samples has been obtained from a core hole intersecting basalt underlying the Newberry caldera, Oregon, where temperatures presently range from 100 to 265{sup 0}C. Results of mineralogical and geochemical investigations of this core should indicate the alteration mineralogy and behavior of radioelements in conditions analogous to those in the near field of a repository in basalt.
- Research Organization:
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States). Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research; Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA
- OSTI ID:
- 60543
- Report Number(s):
- NUREG/CP--0052; CONF-8308126--; ON: TI84901252
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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