skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Schematic designs for penetration seals for a repository in Richton Dome. [Richton Dome]

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6202950

The isolation of radioactive wastes in geologic repositories requires that human-made penetrations such as shafts, tunnels, or boreholes are adequately sealed. This report describes schematic seal designs for a repository in dome salt referenced to the geology of the Richton Dome in Mississippi. The designs are presented for extensive peer review and will be updated as conceptual designs if the Richton Dome is selected as a candidate repository site. The principal components of the seal system are concrete bulkheads and dense earth backfill placed in salt and anhydrite horizons in the shafts and in the tunnels in the shaft pillar. Crushed salt backfill is placed throughout the disposal areas. Close to the waste, this backfill should consolidate in response to closure of the rooms, resulting in effective encapsulation of the waste within a period of about 1000 years. Analyses based on a limited amount of laboratory testing indicate that consolidation rates will be relatively slow at locations further removed from the waste. Rates of consolidation are slow because of the slow-creeping properties of the Richton Dome salt and because of the relatively shallow (1900 feet) repository depth.

Research Organization:
IT Corp., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-83CH10140
OSTI ID:
6202950
Report Number(s):
BMI/ONWI-562; ON: DE86007014
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products. Original copy available until stock is exhausted
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English