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Cementitious Mixtures for Sealing Access Shafts/Boreholes Through Evaporite and Clastic Rocks in a Radioactive-Waste Repository

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Lillian D. Wakeley ,
Della M. Roy  and
M. W. Grutzeck
Lillian D. Wakeley
Affiliation:
Materials Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802M
Della M. Roy
Affiliation:
Materials Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802M
M. W. Grutzeck
Affiliation:
Materials Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802M
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Abstract

Geochemically compatible cement-based mixtures were designed for sealing a potential geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste in evaporite and related rock strata. The slightly expansive cementitious mixtures were based on Class H cement and Class C fly ash, with silica and calcium sulfate additives, and a low ratio of water to cementitious solids (w/s = 0.32). Both a salt-free and a salt-containing version were used in tests with anhydrite/siltstone and halite.

Although it is difficult to achieve strong bonding between anhydrite and cement-based mixtures, tensile bond strengths, interface permeability, and other properties of the composites as a whole indicate achievement of the desired chemical and physical compatibility between these materials Integrity of bonding and low permeability to water (on the order of 110 darcy) suggest the likelihood of attaining durable sealing of repository access shafts/boreholes through the use of such chemically tailored cementitious mixtures.

Rock samples used in ongoing sealing studies were obtained from various areas throughout the United States. The data in the present paper represent results for rocks obtained from the Palo Duro Basin and as such typify bedded-salt strata.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 44: Symposium N – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management VIII , 1984 , 951
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1985

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References

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