Salt Heater Test (FY19), Rev. 2

Mills, Melissa; Kuhlman, Kristopher L; Matteo, Edward N; Herrick, Courtney G; Nemer, Martin B.; Heath, Jason E.; Xiong, Yongliang; Lopez, Carlos; Stauffer, Philip H.; Boukhalfa, Hakim; Guiltinan, Eric; Rahn, T.; Weaver, Doug; Dozier, Brian; Otto, Shawn; Rutqvist, Jonny; Wu, Yuxin; Hu, Mengsu; Crandall, Dustin

doi:10.2172/1763224

Cited by 1 publication

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“…With much of the tacit knowledge from the previous experiments having been lost to retirements, the early round of BATS experimentation involved several logistical and technical challenges. These challenges were foreseen at the outset, and thus the scope of the early experiments was limited to allow the team to gain experience working underground at WIPP before conducting more challenging experiments (Johnson, Stauffer, Zyvoloski, and Bourret, 2018; Kuhlman et al., 2017; Mills et al., 2019; SNL, LANL, & LBNL, 2020; Stauffer et al., 2015). The borehole testing discussed here began in June 2018 and was completed by May 2019.…”

Section: Heated Borehole Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, when exposed to a 750‐W radiative heater for 90 d, the borehole closure is simulated to be almost 1 cm (Figure 16). During the next round of BATS testing, the closure of the borehole will be monitored by a borehole closure gauge placed near the heater, and the simulations can be compared with experimental results (Mills et al., 2019). Such comparison between modeling and experiments will help to constrain creep parameters for the constitutive viscoplastic model, including parameters for temperature dependency on creep.…”

Section: Model Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At WIPP, the permeability of intact rock salt is estimated at 10 −21 to 10 −22 m 2 , and in the far field, away from the disturbed section of the mine, the flow is thought to approach zero under natural hydraulic gradients (Beauheim, Domski, & Roberts, 1999). With low undisturbed permeability and intergranular porosity of halite at 0.1% (Beauheim & Roberts, 2002), the physical processes that drive the formation brine toward open boreholes and excavations, especially near sources of heat, remain a source of uncertainty (Bourret et al., 2019; Mills et al., 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The results of these experiments have been used to develop a larger scale test, which is known as the Phase 1 test, and was described in detail by Mills et al. (2019). The Phase 1 test began January 2020 and will run for several months.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Temperature response and brine availability to heated boreholes in bedded salt

Guiltinan

Kuhlman

Rutqvist

et al. 2020

Vadose Zone Journal

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There is a growing need for disposal of high-level nuclear waste. To reduce uncertainty associated with brine availability to repository excavations in salt formations, a collaboration between Sandia, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories is performing a series of borehole-scale coupled process tests. Here, we report on the first round of the Brine Availability Test in Salt (BATS) project, a "shakedown" experiment called Phase 1s. Experimental testing included placing a resistive heater, a 260-W radiative heater, and a 750-W radiative heater within previously drilled horizontal boreholes at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) while monitoring temperature and water inflow. The experiments successfully achieved the targeted temperature of 120 • C when using the 750-W radiative heater. Simulations using FEHM (Finite Element Heat and Mass transfer code) and TOUGH-FLAC (Transport Of Unsaturated Groundwater and Heat-Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua) were able to accurately predict the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical response of salt, matching the observed temperature and brine production. Due to the extremely low permeability of salt, these systems take many years to reach steady state when perturbed by mining activities. Long-term numerical simulations are used to develop the initial pressure and saturation conditions. The inclusion of a damaged rock zone with higher permeability around the borehole also affects the saturation and pressure distributions and plays an important role in dissipating the potential for thermal pressurization. Knowledge gained from this round of experimentation and simulation will be used to conduct the next BATS project experiment in new boreholes at WIPP.

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Section: Heated Borehole Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Model Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%