Publications

Abstract not provided.

The deployment of the Joint Technical Operations Team (JTOT) is evolving toward a lean and mobile response team. As a result, opportunities to support more rapid mobilization are being investigated. This study investigates three specific opportunities including: (1) the potential of using standard firefighting equipment to support deployment of the aqueous foam concentrate (AFC-380); (2) determining the feasibility and needs for regional staging of equipment to reduce the inventory currently mobilized during a JTOT response; and (3) determining the feasibility and needs for development of the next generation AFC-380 to reduce the volume of foam concentrate required for a response. This study supports the need to ensure that requirements for alternative deployment schemes are understood and in place to support improved response activities.

A solution mining facility at the Eddy Potash Mine, Eddy County, New Mexico has been proposed that will utilize salinity gradient solar pond (SGSP) technology to supply industrial process thermal energy. The process will include underground dissolution of potassium chloride (KCl) from pillars and other reserves remaining after completion of primary room and pillar mining using recirculating solutions heated in the SGSP. Production of KCl will involve cold crystallization followed by a cooling pond stage, with the spent brine being recirculated in a closed loop back to the SGSP for reheating. This research uses SGSP as a renewable, clean energy source to optimize the entire mining process, minimize environmental wastes, provide a safe, more economical extraction process and reduce the need for conventional processing by crushing, grinding and flotation. The applications of SGSP technology will not only save energy in the extraction and beneficiation processes, but also will produce excess energy available for power generation, desalination, and auxiliary structure heating.

The 1996 performance assessment (PA) for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) maintains a separation between stochastic (i.e., aleatory) and subjective (i.e., epistemic) uncertainty, with stochastic uncertainty arising from the possible disruptions that could occur at the WIPP over the 10,000 yr regulatory period specified by the US Environmental Protection Agency (40 CFR 191,40 CFR 194) and subjective uncertainty arising from an inability to uniquely characterize many of the inputs required in the 1996 WIPP PA. The characterization of subjective uncertainty is discussed, including assignment of distributions, uncertain variables selected for inclusion in analysis, correlation control, sample size, statistical confidence on mean complementary cumulative distribution functions, generation of Latin hypercube samples, sensitivity analysis techniques, and scenarios involving stochastic and subjective uncertainty.

Use of nature`s laboratory for scientific analysis of complex systems is a largely untapped resource for understanding long-term disposal of hazardous materials. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in the US is a facility designed and approved for storage of transuranic waste in a salt medium. Isolation from the biosphere must be ensured for 10,000 years. Natural analogs provide a means to interpret the evolution of the underground disposal setting. Investigations of ancient sites where manmade materials have experienced mechanical and chemical processes over millennia provide scientific information unattainable by conventional laboratory methods. This paper presents examples of these pertinent natural analogs, provides examples of features relating to the WIPP application, and identifies potential avenues of future investigations. This paper cites examples of analogical information pertaining to the Hallstatt salt mine in Austria and Wieliczka salt mine in Poland. This paper intends to develop an appreciation for the applicability of natural analogs to the science and engineering of a long-term disposal facility in geomedia.