Summary of research and development for disposal of US Defense wastes in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP)

Conference · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1983

OSTI ID:6409849

Hunter, T O

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is an R and D facility located in bedded rock salt in southeastern New Mexico to demonstrate the safe disposal of nuclear wastes from the US defense programs. Excavation is now in progress for the underground rooms in which in situ experiments will be performed. These experiments are a follow-on to site selection and characterization studies that began as early as 1972, and are based on an extensive amount of laboratory testing, analytical modeling, and field tests in boreholes and nearby mines. Results of experimental activities to date and the plans for remaining tests are presented, with emphasis on those to be completed in 1984 and 1985. The first phase of the experiments is performed without using radioactive material. These experiments began with the Site and Preliminary Design Validation (SPDV) program, which consisted of (1) two shafts, 12 ft and 6 ft in diameter, drilled to 2150 ft; and (2) underground drifts and rooms monitored to determine the response of the rock salt under ambient conditions. The SPDV program will be followed by experiments in a series of underground rooms in which the response of the rock to heat emplacements with an areal loading of 12 W/m/sup 2/ will be determined. Other experiments in rooms include overtest configurations that will generate about four times that heat loading, and other well-defined geometric configurations to evaluate predictive models. Also planned are experiments addressing waste package interactions with rock salt and tests in other technical areas, such as repository sealing and operational considerations. In about 1989, a series of experiments and demonstrations will be performed with radioactive wastes. These include a full-scale storage demonstration using about 6 million ft/sup 3/ of TRU wastes and tests using up to 40 canisters of defense high-level waste.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 6409849
• Report Number(s): SAND-82-2313C; CONF-830523-2; ON: DE83007840
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052002* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Disposal & Storage
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
FEDERAL REGION VI
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
NEW MEXICO
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
PILOT PLANTS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SALT DEPOSITS
USA
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES