Swedish-American cooperative program on radioactive waste storage in mined caverns. Technical project report No. 1

Technical Report · Mon May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1978

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6702856· OSTI ID:6702856

Witherspoon, P A; Degerman, O

The Swedish-American cooperative program of investigations at the Stripa iron-ore mine is the first international effort of its kind in which field work will be carried out aimed at the general problem of underground radioactive waste storage. The program will focus on a number of problems that must be solved in developing the technology needed to design and operate waste repositories in crystalline rock. These involve such items as the appropriate mining techniques for repository construction, the effects of pressure and temperature on rock permeability, in situ rock stress measurements, and geochemical groundwater investigations. Two critical problems that will receive considerable investigation are (1) the effects of elevated temperatures on the geomechanical behavior of granite, and (2) the fracture hydrology of the granite rock mass at Stripa. The investigation of temperature effects will be approached from two standpoints: (1) the short-term effects will be studied by using full-size canisters equipped with electric heaters to simulate the energy output of radioactive waste, and (2) the long-term effects, by using a time-scaled array of electric heaters to simulate the thermal loading on a rock mass over periods of several decades. The purpose of the hydrology studies is to define the surface and subsurface hydrological conditions of the fractured granite mass at Stripa and to determine how these conditions vary as a function of time and temperature. An understanding of the rate at which water is able to seep through the rock walls of an underground opening and of the level of accuracy required for the necessary field measurements is vital to the design of a waste repository.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Berkeley (USA). Lawrence Berkeley Lab.; Swedish Nuclear Industry Group, Stockholm (Sweden)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 6702856
• Report Number(s): LBL-7049
• 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
COMMINUTION
EUROPE
FRACTURING
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GRANITES
GROUND WATER
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROLOGY
IGNEOUS ROCKS
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
MANAGEMENT
MINES
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE
ROCKS
SCANDINAVIA
STORAGE
SWEDEN
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
UNDERGROUND STORAGE
USA
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE STORAGE
WATER