Project Rulison: a preliminary report
Project Rulison was designed to use underground nuclear technology to determine the potential of this technique for commercial development of the deep, thick, lenticular, low permeability, Mesaverde Formation of the Rulison field in Garfield County, Colorado. The Project Rulison exploratory well, R-EX, was completed in May 1968. Detailed testing of this well provided data on geology, hydrology, and reservoir characteristics. The data obtained from the testing have been used to determine the flow capacity of the Mesaverde reservoir. The reservoir characteristics were then used as input data to make predictions of post-shot reservoir performance in the nuclear stimulated well, using a radial, unsteady state gas flow computer model. A nuclear explosive with a design yield of 40 kt was emplaced in a 10-3/4 in. hole at a depth of 8,426 ft below ground surface and detonated on Sept. 10, 1969. A preliminary appraisal of the data taken at shot time indicated that the explosive behaved as predicted.
- Research Organization:
- Austral Oil Co., Inc., Houston, TX (USA); CER Geonuclear Corp., Las Vegas, NV (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6833521
- Report Number(s):
- PNE-R-19; CONF-700101-12
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Meeting on engineering with nuclear explosives, Las Vegas, NV, USA, 14 Jan 1970
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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