Basic data report for drillhole ERDA 6 (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant - WIPP)

Technical Report · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1983

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6781059· OSTI ID:6781059

ERDA 6 was drilled in eastern Eddy County, New Mexico, to investigate a candidate site for a nuclear waste repository. The site was subsequently rejected on the basis of geological data. ERDA 6 was drilled in the NE 1/4 SE 1/4, section 35, T21S,R31E. The borehole encountered, from top to bottom, 17 ft of Quaternary deposits, 55 ft of the Triassic Santa Rosa Sandstone, 466 ft of the Dewey Lake Red Beds, 273 ft of the Rustler Formation, 1785.5 ft of the Salado Formation and 374.5 ft of the upper Castile Formation, all of Permian age. Cores or drill cuttings were taken throughout the hole. A suite of wireline geophysical logs was run to a depth of 883 ft to facilitate the recognition and correlation of rock units, to assure identification of major lithologies and to provide depth determinations independent of drill-pipe measurements. The site at ERDA 6 was rejected because the structure of the lower Salado and the Castile is too severe to develop a repository along a single set of beds. The borehole also intersected a reservoir of pressurized brine and gas at about 2710'. The pore volume for the reservoir was estimated to be in the range from about 200,000 to about 2 million barrels. ERDA 6 was re-entered in 1981 by the Department of Energy (DOE) for the purpose of further testing the brine reservoir. Those tests are described in separate reports by the DOE and its contractors. The WIPP is a demonstration facility for the disposal of transuranic (TRU) waste from defense programs. The WIPP will also provide a research facility to investigate the interactions between bedded salt and high level wastes.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA); Geological Survey, Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 6781059
• Report Number(s): SAND-79-0267; ON: DE83006392
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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ALPHA-BEARING WASTES
BOREHOLES
CAVITIES
FEDERAL REGION VI
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
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NUCLEAR FACILITIES
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RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SALT DEPOSITS
SITE SURVEYS
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