''WIPP'': a bedded salt repository for defense radioactive waste in southeastern New Mexico

Conference · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1978

OSTI ID:6569541

Weart, W D

DOE is proposing to demonstrate the acceptability of geologic disposal of radioactive waste by locating a Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in the salt beds 26 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico. The WIPP will serve as a permanent repository for defense generated transuranic contaminated waste and will also be used as a facility in which experiments and demonstrations with all radioactive waste types can be conducted. A conceptual design has been completed and an environmental report on actual and possible impacts will soon be released. There are many technical issues which must be pursued in connection with WIPP. Many of these involve natural geologic and hydrologic phenomena. The introduction of radioactive wastes into this environment raises more issues which are being investigated in the laboratory and which, in many instances, must also be studied in situ. WIPP will be an underground laboratory where large-scale experiments on thermal effects and waste/rock interactions will be examined. Some of these physical and chemical problems are summarized in this paper. 9 figures.

• Research Organization: Sandia Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-04-0789
• OSTI ID: 6569541
• Report Number(s): SAND-78-0934; CONF-780902-10
• 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
ELEMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
MANAGEMENT
MASS TRANSFER
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
PILOT PLANTS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
SALT DEPOSITS
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT