Publications Details
Historic testing relevant to disposal of heat-generating waste in salt
Significant laboratory and in situ testing has been conducted by both the United States and Germany on salt disposal of heat-generating radioactive waste. Coupled simulation capabilities recently developed in other fields are now being applied to repository design and performance confirmation. New efforts are underway to benchmark this latest generation of numerical models, requiring quality validation datasets. Datasets associated with historic high-level waste (HL W) field experiments at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, Avery Island in Louisiana, Asse II in Germany, and Project Salt Vault in Kansas should be considered before constructing new experiments. We constructed an online bibliographic database using the web reference database (Refbase) distribution to contain references to reports, and conference papers, along with associated electronic copies of reports and associated data. The database was populated using publically available Department of Energy sources and project-specific archives scanned for this project. The browser-based database facilitated an extensive collaborative review of experiments in geologic salt-primarily concerning heated salt that may be applicable to modern code validation efforts. We summarize historic in situ tests conducted in geologic salt, focusing on heated salt creep, heated brine migration, and crushed salt reconsolidation. We propose several candidate thermal, mechanical, and hydrological validation datasets for salt behavior under repository conditions.