Mineral sources of water and their influence on the safe disposal of radioactive wastes in bedded salt deposits
With the increased use of nuclear energy, there will be subsequent increases in high-level radioactive wastes such as Sr/sup 90/, Cs/sup 137/, and Pu/sup 239/. Several agencies have considered the safest possible means to store or dispose of wastes in geologic environments such as underground storage in salt deposits, shale beds, abandoned dry mines, and in clay and shale pits. Salt deposits have received the most favorable attention because they exist in dry environments and because of other desirable properties of halite (its plasticity, gamma-ray shielding, heat dissipation ability, low mining cost, and worldwide abundance). Much work has been done on bedded salt deposits, particularly the Hutchinson Salt Member of the Wellington Formation at Lyons, Kansas. Salt beds heated by the decay of the radioactive wastes may release water by dehydration of hydrous minerals commonly present in evaporite sequences or water present in other forms such as fluid inclusions. More than 80 hydrous minerals are known to occur in evaporite deposits. The occurrences, total water contents (up to 63%) and dehydration temperatures (often less that 150/sup 0/C) of these minerals are given. Since it is desirable to dispose of radioactive wastes in a dry environment, care must be taken that large quantities of water are not released through the heating of hydrous minerals. Seventy-four samples from four cores taken at Lyons, Kansas, were analyzed by x-ray diffraction. The minerals detected were halite, anhydrite, gypsum, polyhalite, dolomite, magnesite, quartz, feldspar, and the clay minerals illite, chlorite, kaolinite, vermiculite, smectite, mixed-layer clay, and corrensite (interstratified chlorite-vermiculite). Of these, gypsum, polyhalite and the clay minerals are all capable of releasing water when heated.
- Research Organization:
- Union Carbide Corp., Oak Ridge, TN (USA). Office of Waste Isolation
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-26; SUB-3670
- OSTI ID:
- 7119656
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL/Sub/3670-1; TRN: 77-009029
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis. Submitted to Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
KANSAS
SALT DEPOSITS
MINERALS
DEHYDRATION
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
DRILL CORES
GEOLOGY
MINERALOGY
SITE SELECTION
STRATIGRAPHY
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
COHERENT SCATTERING
DIFFRACTION
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
MANAGEMENT
MIDWEST REGION
NORTH AMERICA
SCATTERING
USA
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
052002* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Disposal & Storage