Physical and hydrologic properties of rock outcrop samples at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

Abstract

This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.

Update to Assessment of Direct Disposal in Unsaturated Tuff of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Waste Owned by U.S. Department of Energy

“…Many previous publications contain comprehensive site descriptions that have evolved during site investigation (DOE, 1995;Luckey et al, 1996;Flint et al, 1996;Scott and Bonk, 1984;Wilson et al, 1994;Winopd and Thordarson, 1975;Younker et al, 1992). The 1988 Site Characterization Plan (SCP) (DOE, 1988b) contains extensive background information for virtually all aspects of the geologic barrier subsystem.…”

“…Precambrian marine transgressive rocks underlie the Paleozoic in the Yucca Mountain area. For more comprehensive information on the stratigraphy of the area see Flint et al (1996), Buesch et al (1996), Scott and Bonk (1984), Winograd and Thordarson (1975), and DOE (1988, Section 1.2).…”

Estimation of hydraulic conductivities of Yucca Mountain tuffs from sorptivity and water retention measurements

“…The two potentials yri and yr, are related to the saturation Si and S, through the main branch of the water retention relation yf (S). The boundary condition used in the sorptivity experiments of Flint et al (1995) is yf, =0, which usually corresponds to S, = 1.0, which is to say full liquid saturation.…”

“…In principle, knowledge of any two of these three functions would enable the third to be determined. In this report we present two methods for estimating the hydraulic conductivity function from sorptivity and water retention measurements, and test these methods against data on seven Yucca Mountain tuff cores that have been collected by Flint et al (1995). We note, however, that this particular data set is neither sufficiently extensive nor accurate enough to provide a definitive test of the inversion procedures proposed in this report.…”

Thermohydrologic Modeling and Testing Program Peer Review Record Memorandum

“…Several reports and papers made available to the the PRT illustrate the types of data for characterizing the site under ambient hydrologic conditions. These include the reports of , Wilder (1993a,b), Flint et al (1994b), White Paper (DOE, 1995a), and Zimmerman et al ( ,1987. Properties can be categorized as hydraulic, thermal, chemical and mechanical.…”