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Geoengineering Characterization of Welded Tuffs from Laboratory and Field Investigations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Roger M. Zimmermian ,
Francis B. Nimick  and
Mark P. Board
Roger M. Zimmermian
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
Francis B. Nimick
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
Mark P. Board
Affiliation:
Science Applications, Inc., Las Vegas, Nevada 89114
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Abstract

Welded tuff beneath Yucca Mountain adjacent to the Nevada Test Site (NTS) is being considered for development as a high-level radioactive waste repository by the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) Project. Because access into Yucca Mountain has been limited to borehole explorations, early geoengineering materials characterizations have been derived From laboratory tests on cores from Yucca Mountain and from laboratory and field tests on welded tuffs located in G-Tunnel on the NTS. G-Tunnel contains welded tuffs that have similar properties and stress states to those at Yucca Mountain and has been the location for in situ rock mechanics testing. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the geoengineering material property data obtained to date and to compare appropriate laboratory and field data from G-Tunnel to findings from Yucca Mountain.

Geomechanical and thermal data are provided and are augmented by limited geological and hydrological data. A comparison of results of laboratory measurements on tuffs from Yucca Mountain and G-Tunnel indicates good agreement between the bulk densities, saturations, moduli of elasticity, Poisson's ratios, and P-wave velocities. The G-Tunnel tuff has slightly lower thermal conductivity, tensile strength, compressive strength and slightly higher matrix permeability than does the welded tuff near the proposed repository horizon at Yucca Mountain. From a laboratory-to-field scaling perspective, the modulus of deformation shows the most sensitivity to field conditions because of the presence of joints found in the field.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 44: Symposium N – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management VIII , 1984 , 547
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1985

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