Geotechnical Status Report for Test Storage of Spent Reactor Fuel in Climax Granite, Nevada Test Site

Geomechanics of the Spent Fuel Test: Climax

“…The first monitoring took place as the canister drift was mined out and has been, therefore, termed the Mine-By experiment. During that monitoring, there seemed to be a relationship between the lack of agreement between the calculated and ob served displacements and the presence of shear zones (Wilder and Patrick, 1981;Wilder, 1979;and Heuze et a!., 1981b). The heated phase monitoring does not show identical patterns but may be re sponding to the same structural features.…”

“…The loca tions were chosen so that the stressmeters would be near displacement instrumentation even though the parallel holes dictated gauge orienta tions that were orthogonal to the component of deformation being measured by the extensom eters. The installation and calibrations are re ported in Abey and Washington (1980), Carlson (1985), and Mao (1984); other aspects of the instru mentation are described by Wilder and Patrick (1981) and Carlson et al (1980).…”

“…Measurements were made during the early phases of the SFT-C Project to monitor pillar deformations during mining of the canister drift. Analyses of the data indicated that the elastic re sponse of the rock mass was perturbed by the presence of shear zones (Wilder and Patrick, 1981). The thermal phase and cooldown phase monitoring of deformations by the same extensometers allow for consideration of whether the same apparent influence by the shear zones on rock mass deformations was present during these phases of the Project.…”

Instrumentation Report No. 3: performance and reliability of instrumentation deployed for the Spent Fuel Test - Climax

“…Three IRAD Gage Co. Model VBS-1HR (hard rock) stressmeters were used in the pillars during the Mine-by experiment (Wilder and Patrick, 1981). During the heated phase of testing, 18 Model VBS-1HT[HR] (high-temperature hard rock) stressmeters were used in the pillars and at posi tions 1.2 m radially outward from the spent-fuel assemblies (Brough and Patrick, 1982) (Figs.…”

Hydraulic-fracturing measurmements in two boreholes near the Spent Fuel Test-Climax, Climax Stock, Nevada Test Site

“…A transition from a relatively low to a relatively high minimum stress magnitude apparently occurs at a hole depth of around 70 m. The reason for this variation in minimum stress magnitude is uncertain. Most likely, it represents natural stress variations that are commonly observed in jointed rock masses (Obert and Duvall, 1967, p. 477), but could also possibly be related to two northeast-striking faults identified in the SFT-C drifts (Wilder and Patrick, 1981). Two of the intensely jointed intervals in the UG-3 hole occur at depths near where these faults would project into the hole, and are therefore indicated as "probable faults" in figure 7.…”