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1.
《Applied Geochemistry》2002,17(6):709-734
Uranium, Th and Pb isotopes were analyzed in layers of opal and chalcedony from individual mm- to cm-thick calcite and silica coatings at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, USA, a site that is being evaluated for a potential high-level nuclear waste repository. These calcite and silica coatings on fractures and in lithophysal cavities in Miocene-age tuffs in the unsaturated zone (UZ) precipitated from descending water and record a long history of percolation through the UZ. Opal and chalcedony have high concentrations of U (10 to 780 ppm) and low concentrations of common Pb as indicated by large values of 206Pb/204Pb (up to 53,806), thus making them suitable for U-Pb age determinations. Interpretations of U-Pb isotope systems in opal samples at Yucca Mountain are complicated by the incorporation of excess 234U at the time of mineral formation, resulting in reverse discordance of U-Pb ages. However, the 207Pb/235U ages are much less affected by deviation from initial secular equilibrium and provide reliable ages of most silica deposits between 0.6 and 9.8 Ma. For chalcedony subsamples showing normal age discordance, these ages may represent minimum times of deposition. Typically, 207Pb/235U ages are consistent with the microstratigraphy in the mineral coating samples, such that the youngest ages are for subsamples from outer layers, intermediate ages are from inner layers, and oldest ages are from innermost layers. 234U and 230Th in most silica layers deeper in the coatings are in secular equilibrium with 238U, which is consistent with their old age and closed system behavior during the past ∼0.5 Ma. The ages for subsamples of silica layers from different microstratigraphic positions in individual calcite and silica coating samples collected from lithophysal cavities in the welded part of the Topopah Spring Tuff yield slow long-term average growth rates of 1 to 5 mm/Ma. These data imply that the deeper parts of the UZ at Yucca Mountain maintained long-term hydrologic stability over the past 10 Ma. despite significant climate variations. U-Pb ages for subsamples of silica layers from different microstratigraphic positions in individual calcite and silica coating samples collected from fractures in the shallower part of the UZ (welded part of the overlying Tiva Canyon Tuff) indicate larger long-term average growth rates up to 23 mm/Ma and an absence of recently deposited materials (ages of outermost layers are 3–5 Ma.). These differences between the characteristics of the coatings for samples from the shallower and deeper parts of the UZ may indicate that the nonwelded tuffs (PTn), located between the welded parts of the Tiva Canyon and Topopah Spring Tuffs, play an important role in moderating UZ flow.  相似文献   

2.
《Applied Geochemistry》2002,17(6):751-779
Uranium concentrations and 234U/238U ratios in saturated-zone and perched ground water were used to investigate hydrologic flow and downgradient dilution and dispersion in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain, a potential high-level radioactive waste disposal site. The U data were obtained by thermal ionization mass spectrometry on more than 280 samples from the Death Valley regional flow system. Large variations in both U concentrations (commonly 0.6–10 μg l−1) and 234U/238U activity ratios (commonly 1.5–6) are present on both local and regional scales; however, ground water with 234U/238U activity ratios from 7 up to 8.06 is restricted largely to samples from Yucca Mountain. Data from ground water in the Tertiary volcanic and Quaternary alluvial aquifers at and adjacent to Yucca Mountain plot in 3 distinct fields of reciprocal U concentration versus 234U/238U activity ratio correlated to different geographic areas. Ground water to the west of Yucca Mountain has large U concentrations and moderate 234U/238U whereas ground water to the east in the Fortymile flow system has similar 234U/238U, but distinctly smaller U concentrations. Ground water beneath the central part of Yucca Mountain has intermediate U concentrations but distinctive 234U/238U activity ratios of about 7–8. Perched water from the lower part of the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain has similarly large values of 234U/238U. These U data imply that the Tertiary volcanic aquifer beneath the central part of Yucca Mountain is isolated from north-south regional flow. The similarity of 234U/238U in both saturated- and unsaturated-zone ground water at Yucca Mountain further indicates that saturated-zone ground water beneath Yucca Mountain is dominated by local recharge rather than regional flow. The distinctive 234U/238U signatures also provide a natural tracer of downgradient flow. Elevated 234U/238U in ground water from two water-supply wells east of Yucca Mountain are interpreted as the result of induced flow from 40 a of ground-water withdrawal. Elevated 234U/238U in a borehole south of Yucca Mountain is interpreted as evidence that natural downgradient flow is more likely to follow southerly paths in the structurally anisotropic Tertiary volcanic aquifer where it becomes diluted by regional flow in the Fortymile system.  相似文献   

3.
Natural analogues provide an approach to characterize and test the long‐term modelling of a repository performance. This article presents geochemical information about the alteration conditions of the Nopal I uranium deposit, Mexico, an analogue for the proposed Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository. Mineralization and hydrothermal alteration of volcanic tuffs are contemporaneous, according to petrographic observations. Trace element geochemistry (U, Th, REE) provides evidence for local mobilization of uranium under oxidizing conditions and further precipitation under reducing conditions. O‐ and H‐isotope geochemistry of kaolinite, smectite, opal and calcite suggests that argillic alteration proceeded at shallow depth with meteoric water at 25–75 °C, a low‐temperature context, unusual for volcanic‐hosted uranium deposits. This temperature range is compatible with some post‐closure evolution models of the proposed Yucca Mountain repository.  相似文献   

4.
Calcite-rich soils (calcrete) in alluvium and colluvium at Solitario Wash, Crater Flat, Nevada, USA, contain pedogenic calcite and opaline silica similar to soils present elsewhere in the semi-arid southwestern United States. Nevertheless, a ground-water discharge origin for the Solitario Wash soil deposits was proposed in a series of publications proposing elevation-dependent variations of carbon and oxygen isotopes in calcrete samples. Discharge of ground water in the past would raise the possibility of future flooding in the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, site of a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository. New geochemical and carbon, oxygen, strontium, and uranium-series isotopic data disprove the presence of systematic elevation-isotopic composition relations, which are the main justification given for a proposed ground-water discharge origin of the calcrete deposits at Solitario Wash. Values of δ13C (−4.1 to −7.8 per mil [‰]), δ18O (23.8–17.2‰), 87Sr/86Sr (0.71270–0.71146), and initial 234U/238U activity ratios of about 1.6 in the new calcrete samples are within ranges previously observed in pedogenic carbonate deposits at Yucca Mountain and are incompatible with a ground-water origin for the calcrete. Variations in carbon and oxygen isotopes in Solitario Wash calcrete likely are caused by pedogenic deposition from meteoric water under varying Quaternary climatic conditions over hundreds of thousands of years.  相似文献   

5.
Yucca Mountain, Nevada is the site of the proposed US geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. The repository is to be a mine, sited approximately 300 m below the crest of the mountain, in a sequence of variably welded and fractured mid-Miocene rhylolite tuffs, in the unsaturated zone, approximately 300 m above the water table. Beneath the proposed repository, at a depth of 2 km, is a thick sequence of Paleozoic carbonate rocks that contain the highly transmissive Lower Carbonate Aquifer. In the area of Yucca Mountain the Carbonate Aquifer integrates groundwater flow from north of the mountain, through the Amargosa Valley, through the Funeral Mountains to Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California where the groundwater discharges in a set of large springs. Data that describe the Carbonate Aquifer suggest a concept for flow through the aquifer, and based upon the conceptual model, a one-layer numerical model was constructed to simulate groundwater flow in the Carbonate Aquifer. Advective transport analyses suggest that the predicted travel time of a particle from Yucca Mountain to Death Valley through the Carbonate Aquifer might be as short as 100 years to as long 2,000 years, depending upon the porosity.  相似文献   

6.
《Applied Geochemistry》2002,17(6):735-750
Calcite and silica form coatings on fracture footwalls and cavity floors in the welded tuffs at Yucca Mountain, the potential site of a high-level radioactive waste repository. These secondary mineral deposits are heterogeneously distributed in the unsaturated zone (UZ) with fewer than 10% of possible depositional sites mineralized. The paragenetic sequence, compiled from deposits throughout the UZ, consists of an early-stage assemblage of calcite±fluorite±zeolites that is frequently capped by chalcedony±quartz. Intermediate- and late-stage deposits consist largely of calcite, commonly with opal on buried growth layers or outermost crystal faces of the calcite. Coatings on steep-dipping fractures usually are thin (⩽3 mm) with low-relief outer surfaces whereas shallow-dipping fractures and lithophysal cavities typically contain thicker, more coarsely crystalline deposits characterized by unusual thin, tabular calcite blades up to several cms in length. These blades may be capped with knobby or corniced overgrowths of late-stage calcite intergrown with opal. The observed textures in the fracture and cavity deposits are consistent with deposition from films of water fingering down fracture footwalls or drawn up faces of growing crystals by surface tension and evaporated at the crystal tips. Fluid inclusion studies have shown that most early-stage and some intermediate-stage calcite formed at temperatures of 35 to 85 °C. Calcite deposition during the past several million years appears to have been at temperatures <30 °C. The elevated temperatures indicated by the fluid inclusions are consistent with temperatures estimated from calcite δ18O values. Although others have interpreted the elevated temperatures as evidence of hydrothermal activity and flooding of the tuffs of the potential repository, the authors conclude that the temperatures and fluid-inclusion assemblages are consistent with deposition in a UZ environment that experienced prolonged heat input from gradual cooling of nearby plutons. The physical restriction of the deposits (and, therefore, fluid flow) to fracture footwalls and cavity floors and the heterogeneous and limited distribution of the deposits provides compelling evidence that they do not reflect flooding of the thick UZ at Yucca Mountain. The textures and isotopic and chemical compositions of these mineral deposits are consistent with deposition in a UZ setting from meteoric waters percolating downward along fracture flow paths.  相似文献   

7.
《Applied Geochemistry》2002,17(6):659-682
This paper provides a geologic and hydrologic framework of the Yucca Mountain region for the geochemical papers in this volume. The regional geologic units, which range in age from late Precambrian through Holocene, are briefly described. Yucca Mountain is composed of dominantly pyroclastic units that range in age from 11.4 to 15.2 Ma. The principal focus of study has been on the Paintbrush Group, which includes two major zoned and welded ash-flow tuffs separated by an important hydrogeologic unit referred to as the Paintbrush non-welded (PTn). The regional structural setting is currently one of extension, and the major local tectonic domains are presented together with a tectonic model that is consistent with the known structures at Yucca Mountain. Streamflow in this arid to semi-arid region occurs principally in intermittent or ephemeral channels. Near Yucca Mountain, the channels of Fortymile Wash and Amargosa River collect infrequent runoff from tributary basins, ultimately draining to Death Valley. Beneath the surface, large-scale interbasin flow of groundwater from one valley to another occurs commonly in the region. Regional groundwater flow beneath Yucca Mountain originates in the high mesas to the north and returns to the surface either in southern Amargosa Desert or in Death Valley, where it is consumed by evapotranspiration. The water table is very deep beneath the upland areas such as Yucca Mountain, where it is 500–750 m below the land surface, providing a large thickness of unsaturated rocks that are potentially suitable to host a nuclear-waste repository. The nature of unsaturated flow processes, which are important for assessing radionuclide migration, are inferred mainly from hydrochemical or isotopic evidence, from pneumatic tests of the fracture systems, and from the results of in situ experiments. Water seeping down through the unsaturated zone flows rapidly through fractures and more slowly through the pores of the rock matrix. Although capillary forces are expected to divert much of the flow around repository openings, some may drip onto waste packages, ultimately causing release of radionuclides, followed by transport down to the water table.  相似文献   

8.
The origin of secondary calcite-silica minerals in primary and secondary porosity of the host Miocene tuffs at Yucca Mountain has been hotly debated during the last decade. Proponents of a high-level nuclear waste repository beneath Yucca Mountain have interpreted the secondary minerals to have formed from cool, descending meteoric fluids in the vadose zone; critics, citing the presence of two-phase fluid inclusions, argued that the minerals could only have formed in the phreatic zone from ascending hydrothermal fluids. Understanding the origin, temperature, and timing of these minerals is critical in characterizing geologically recent fluid flux at the site, and has significant implications to whether waste should be stored at Yucca Mountain.Petrographic and paragenetic studies of 155 samples collected from the Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF) and repository block cross drift (ECRB) tunnels indicate that heterogeneously distributed calcite with lesser chalcedony, quartz, opal, and fluorite comprise the oldest secondary minerals. These are typically overgrown by intermediate-aged calcite, often exhibiting distinctive bladed habits. The youngest event recorded across the site is the deposition of Mg-enriched (up to ∼1 wt%) and depleted, growth-zoned calcite intergrown with U-enriched opal. The cyclical variation in Mg enrichment and depletion is probably related to climate changes that have occurred during the last few million years. The distribution of secondary minerals is consistent with precipitation in the vadose zone.Fluid inclusion petrography of sections from the 155 samples determined that 96% of the fluid inclusion assemblages (FIAs) contained liquid-only inclusions that formed at ambient temperatures (<35°C). However, 50% of the samples (n = 78) contained relatively rare FIA that contain both liquid-only and liquid plus vapor inclusions (herein termed two-phase FIAs) that formed at temperatures above 35°C. Virtually all of these two-phase FIAs occur in paragenetically old calcite; rare two-phase inclusion assemblages were also observed in early fluorite and quartz, and early-intermediate calcite. Homogenization temperatures (≡ trapping temperatures) across Yucca Mountain are generally 45 to 60°C, but higher temperatures reaching 83°C were recorded in calcite from the north portal and ramp of the ESF. Cooler temperatures of ∼35 to 45°C were recorded in the intensely fractured zone. Multiple populations of two-phase FIAs from lithophysal cavities in the ESF and ECRB cross drift indicate early fluid cooling with time from temperatures >45°C in early calcite, to <35 to 45°C in paragenetically younger calcite. Freezing point depressions range from −0.2 to −1.6°C, indicating trapping of a low salinity fluid. The majority of intermediate calcite and all outermost Mg-enriched calcite contains rare all-liquid inclusions and formed from ambient temperature (<35°C) fluids.Carbon and oxygen isotope data reveal a consistent trend of decreasing δ13C (from 9.5 to −8.5‰) and increasing δ18O (from 5.2 to 22.1‰) values from paragenetically early calcite to Mg-enriched growth-zoned calcite. Depleted δD values (−131 to −90‰) of inclusion fluids from intermediate and the youngest Mg-enriched calcite indicate derivation from surface meteoric fluids. Recalculation of δ18OH2O values of −12 to −10‰ is consistent with derivation from paleometeoric fluids.Results of integrated U-Pb dating (opal and chalcedony) and fluid inclusion microthermometry indicate that two-phase FIAs that trapped fluids of >50°C are older than 6.29 ± 0.30 Ma. Two-phase FIAs in paragenetically later calcite, which formed from fluids of 35 to 45°C, are older than 5.32 ± 0.02 Ma. There is no evidence for trapping of fluids with elevated temperatures during the past 5.32 my. The youngest Mg-enriched calcite intergrown with opal began to precipitate between about 1.9 to 2.9 Ma and has continued to precipitate within the past half million years. The presence of liquid-only inclusions and the consistent occurrence of Mg-enriched calcite and opal as the youngest event indicate a minor, but chemically distinct, ambient temperature (<35°C) fluid flux during the past 2 to 3 my.  相似文献   

9.
Characterizing percolation patterns in unsaturated fractured rock has posed a greater challenge to modeling investigations than comparable saturated zone studies due to the heterogeneous nature of unsaturated media and the great number of variables impacting unsaturated flow. An integrated modeling methodology has been developed for quantitatively characterizing percolation patterns in the unsaturated zone of Yucca Mountain, Nevada (USA), a proposed underground repository site for storing high-level radioactive waste. The approach integrates moisture, pneumatic, thermal, and isotopic geochemical field data into a comprehensive three-dimensional numerical model for analyses. It takes into account the coupled processes of fluid and heat flow and chemical isotopic transport in Yucca Mountain’s highly heterogeneous, unsaturated fractured tuffs. Modeling results are examined against different types of field-measured data and then used to evaluate different hydrogeological conceptualizations through analyzing flow patterns in the unsaturated zone. In particular, this model provides clearer understanding of percolation patterns and flow behavior through the unsaturated zone, both crucial issues in assessing repository performance. The integrated approach for quantifying Yucca Mountain’s flow system is demonstrated to provide a practical modeling tool for characterizing flow and transport processes in complex subsurface systems.  相似文献   

10.
Calcite/opal deposits (COD) at Yucca Mountain were studied with respect to their regional and field geology, petrology and petrography, chemistry and isotopic geochemistry, and fluid inclusions. They were also compared with true pedogenic deposits (TPD), groundwater spring deposits (GSD), and calcite vein deposits (CVD) in the subsurface. Some of the data are equivocal and can support either a hypogene or pedogenic origin for these deposits. However, Sr-, C-, and O-isotope, fluid inclusion, and other data favor a hypogene interpretation. A hypothesis that may account for all currently available data is that the COD precipitated from warm, CO2-rich water that episodically upwelled along faults during the Pleistocene, and which, upon reaching the surface, flowed downslope within existing alluvial, colluvial, eluvial, or soil deposits. Being formed near, or on, the topographic surface, the COD acquired characteristics of pedogenic deposits. This subject relates to the suitability of Yucca Mountain as a high-level nuclear waste site.  相似文献   

11.
Extreme U and Pb isotope variations produced by disequilibrium in decay chains of 238U and 232Th are found in calcite, opal/chalcedony, and Mn-oxides occurring as secondary mineral coatings in the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. These very slowly growing minerals (mm my−1) contain excess 206Pb and 208Pb formed from excesses of intermediate daughter isotopes and cannot be used as reliable 206Pb/238U geochronometers. The presence of excess intermediate daughter isotopes does not appreciably affect 207Pb/235U ages of U-enriched opal/chalcedony, which are interpreted as mineral formation ages.Opal and calcite from outer (younger) portions of coatings have 230Th/U ages from 94.6 ± 3.7 to 361.3 ± 9.8 ka and initial 234U/238U activity ratios (AR) from 4.351 ± 0.070 to 7.02 ± 0.12, which indicate 234U enrichment from percolating water. Present-day 234U/238U AR is ∼1 in opal/chalcedony from older portions of the coatings. The 207Pb/235U ages of opal/chalcedony samples range from 0.1329 ± 0.0080 to 9.10 ± 0.21 Ma, increase with microstratigraphic depth, and define slow long-term average growth rates of about 1.2-2.0 mm my−1, in good agreement with previous results. Measured 234U/238U AR in Mn-oxides, which pre-date the oldest calcite and opal/chalcedony, range from 0.939 ± 0.006 to 2.091 ± 0.006 and are >1 in most samples. The range of 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.71156-0.71280) in Mn-oxides overlaps that in the late calcite. These data indicate that Mn-oxides exchange U and Sr with percolating water and cannot be used as a reliable dating tool.In the U-poor calcite samples, measured 206Pb/207Pb ratios have a wide range, do not correlate with Ba concentration as would be expected if excess Ra was present, and reach a value of about 1400, the highest ever reported for natural Pb. Calcite intergrown with opal contains excesses of both 206Pb and 207Pb derived from Rn diffusion and from direct α-recoil from U-rich opal. Calcite from coatings devoid of opal/chalcedony contains 206Pb and 208Pb excesses, but no appreciable 207Pb excesses. Observed Pb isotope anomalies in calcite are explained by Rn-produced excess Pb. The Rn emanation may strongly affect 206Pb-238U ages of slow-growing U-poor calcite, but should be negligible for dating fast-growing U-enriched speleothem calcite.  相似文献   

12.
Secondary calcite, silica and minor amounts of fluorite deposited in fractures and cavities record the chemistry, temperatures, and timing of past fluid movement in the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the proposed site of a high-level radioactive waste repository. The distribution and geochemistry of these deposits are consistent with low-temperature precipitation from meteoric waters that infiltrated at the surface and percolated down through the unsaturated zone. However, the discovery of fluid inclusions in calcite with homogenization temperatures (Th) up to ∼80 °C was construed by some scientists as strong evidence for hydrothermal deposition. This paper reports the results of investigations to test the hypothesis of hydrothermal deposition and to determine the temperature and timing of secondary mineral deposition. Mineral precipitation temperatures in the unsaturated zone are estimated from calcite- and fluorite-hosted fluid inclusions and calcite δ18O values, and depositional timing is constrained by the 207Pb/235U ages of chalcedony or opal in the deposits. Fluid inclusion Th from 50 samples of calcite and four samples of fluorite range from ∼35 to ∼90 °C. Calcite δ18O values range from ∼0 to ∼22‰ (SMOW) but most fall between 12 and 20‰. The highest Th and the lowest δ18O values are found in the older calcite. Calcite Th and δ18O values indicate that most calcite precipitated from water with δ18O values between −13 and −7‰, similar to modern meteoric waters.  相似文献   

13.
In this article, we model the volcanism near the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, U.S.A. by estimating the instantaneous recurrence rate using a nonhomogeneous Poisson process with Weibull intensity and by using a homogeneous Poisson process to predict future eruptions. We then quantify the probability that any single eruption is disruptive in terms of a (prior) probability distribution, since not every eruption would result in disruption of the repository. Bayesian analysis is performed to evaluate the volcanic risk. Based on the Quaternary data, a 90% confidence interval for the instantaneous recurrence rate near the Yucca Mountain site is (1.85×10–6/yr, 1.26×10–5/yr). Also, using-these confidence bounds, the corresponding 90% confidence interval for the risk (probability of at least one disruptive eruption) for an isolation time of 104 years is (1.0×10–3, 6.7×10–3), if it is assumed that the intensity remains constant during the projected time frame.  相似文献   

14.
 Yucca Mountain, the proposed site for the high-level nuclear waste repository, is located just south of where the present water table begins a sharp rise in elevation. This large hydraulic gradient is a regional feature that extends for over 100 km. Yucca Mountain and its vicinity are underlain by faulted and fractured tuffs with hydraulic conductivities controlled by flow through the fractures. Close to and parallel with the region of large hydraulic gradient, and surrounding the core of the Timber Mountain Caldera, there is a 10- to 20-km-wide zone containing few faults and thus, most likely, few open fractures. Consequently, this zone should have a relatively low hydraulic conductivity, and this inference is supported by the available conductivity measurements in wells near the large hydraulic gradient. Also, slug injection tests indicate significantly higher pressures for fracture opening in wells located near the large hydraulic gradient compared to the opening pressures in wells further to the south, hence implying that lower extensional stresses prevail to the north with consequently fewer open fractures there. Analytical and numerical modeling shows that such a boundary between media of high and low conductivity can produce the observed, large hydraulic gradient, with the high conductivity medium having a lower elevation than the water table. Further, as fractures can close due to tectonic activity, the conductivity of the Yucca Mountain tuffs can be reduced to a value near that for the hydraulic barrier due to strain release by a moderate earthquake. Under these conditions, simulations show that the elevation of the steady-state water table could rise between 150 and 250 m at the repository site. This elevation rise is due to the projected shift in the location of the large hydraulic gradient to the south in response to a moderate earthquake, near magnitude 6, along one of the major normal faults adjacent to Yucca Mountain. As the proposed repository would only be 200–400 m above the present water table, this predicted rise in the water table indicates a potential hazard involving water intrusion. Received: 7 June 1996 / Accepted: 19 November 1996  相似文献   

15.
Estimating recharge at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, USA: comparison of methods   总被引：2，自引：2，他引：2  
Obtaining values of net infiltration, groundwater travel time, and recharge is necessary at the Yucca Mountain site, Nevada, USA, in order to evaluate the expected performance of a potential repository as a containment system for high-level radioactive waste. However, the geologic complexities of this site, its low precipitation and net infiltration, with numerous mechanisms operating simultaneously to move water through the system, provide many challenges for the estimation of the spatial distribution of recharge. A variety of methods appropriate for arid environments has been applied, including water-balance techniques, calculations using Darcy's law in the unsaturated zone, a soil-physics method applied to neutron-hole water-content data, inverse modeling of thermal profiles in boreholes extending through the thick unsaturated zone, chloride mass balance, atmospheric radionuclides, and empirical approaches. These methods indicate that near-surface infiltration rates at Yucca Mountain are highly variable in time and space, with local (point) values ranging from zero to several hundred millimeters per year. Spatially distributed net-infiltration values average 5 mm/year, with the highest values approaching 20 mm/year near Yucca Crest. Site-scale recharge estimates range from less than 1 to about 12 mm/year. These results have been incorporated into a site-scale model that has been calibrated using these data sets that reflect infiltration processes acting on highly variable temporal and spatial scales. The modeling study predicts highly non-uniform recharge at the water table, distributed significantly differently from the non-uniform infiltration pattern at the surface. Electronic Publication  相似文献   

16.
《Applied Geochemistry》2002,17(6):683-698
The compositional variability of the phenocryst-poor member of the 12.8 Ma Topopah Spring Tuff at the potential repository level was assessed by duplicate analysis of 20 core samples from the cross drift at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Previous analyses of outcrop and core samples of the Topopah Spring Tuff showed that the phenocryst-poor rhyolite, which includes both lithophysal and nonlithophysal zones, is relatively uniform in composition. Analyses of rock samples from the cross drift, the first from the actual potential repository block, also indicate the chemical homogeneity of this unit excluding localized deposits of vapor-phase minerals and low-temperature calcite and opal in fractures, cavities, and faults. The possible influence of vapor-phase minerals and calcite and opal coatings on rock composition at a scale sufficiently large to incorporate these heterogeneously distributed deposits was evaluated and is considered to be relatively minor. Therefore, the composition of the phenocryst-poor member of the Topopah Spring Tuff is considered to be adequately represented by the analyses of samples from the cross drift. The mean composition as represented by the 10 most abundant oxides in wt.% or g/100 g is: SiO2, 76.29; Al2O3, 12.55; FeO, 0.14; Fe2O3, 0.97; MgO, 0.13; CaO, 0.50; Na2O, 3.52; K2O, 4.83; TiO2, 0.11; and MnO, 0.07.  相似文献   

17.
Both advocates and critics disagree on the significance and interpretation of critical geological features which relate to the safety and suitability of Yucca Mountain as a site for the construction of a high-level radioactive waste repository. Recent volcanism in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain is recognized readily by geologists and others with a knowledge of nuclear regulatory requirements as an important factor in determining future public and environmental safety. We regard basaltic volcanism as direct and unequivocal evidence of deep-seated geologic instability. Direct disruption of a repository site by basaltic volcanism therefore is a possibility. In this paper, sensitivity analysis of volcanic hazard assessment for the Yucca Mountain site is performed, taking into account some significant geological factors raised by experts. Three types of models are considered in the sensitivity data analysis. The first model assumes that both past and future volcanic activities follow a Homogeneous Poisson Process (HPP). The second model uses a Weibull Process (WP) to estimate the instantaneous recurrence rate based on the historical data at NTS (the Nevada Test Site). The model then switches from a WP of past events to a predictive HPP. The third model assumes that the prior historical trend based on a WP would continue for future activities. Hazards (at least one disruptive event during the next 10,000 years) using both classical and Bayesian approaches are evaluated based on the data for the following two observation periods: Pliocene and younger, and Quaternary. Combinations of various counts of events at volcanic centers of controversy and inclusion (or exclusion) of the youngest date at Lathrop Wells Center (=0.01 Ma) generate 90 different data sets. Sensitivity analysis is performed for each data set and the minimum and the maximum hazards for each model are summarized. We conclude that the estimated overall probability of at least one disruption of a repository at the Yucca Mountain site by basaltic volcanism during the next 10,000 years is bounded between 2.02×105 and 6.57×10–3.  相似文献   

18.
《Applied Geochemistry》2005,20(6):1099-1105
Fluorite is one of the secondary minerals precipitated in pore spaces at the future nuclear waste repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The authors have conducted (U–Th)/He dating of this fluorite in an attempt to constrain the temperature and timing of paleo-fluid flux into the site. Repeated analysis of colourless fluorite yielded a weighted average age of 9.7 ± 0.15 Ma (2σ), younger than previously determined sanidine 40Ar/39 Ar ages (12.8 Ma) for deposition of the tuff.Laboratory He-diffusion experiments conducted on the Yucca fluorite yield a preliminary He closure temperature (Tc) of 90 ± 10 °C (cooling rate of 10 °C/Ma) and previous studies have determined that the fluorite precipitated from warm fluids (65–80 °C) at depths of <400 m. However, minerals can experience partial He loss at temperatures well below the Tc and therefore the (U–Th)/He age of 9.7 Ma is interpreted to be a cooling age. This result implies that the last period of elevated temperature fluid circulation through the Yucca site was approximately 9.7 Ma ago.It was observed that the purple coloured outer portion of the fluorite nodule yielded non-reproducible and invariably older ages than colourless fluorite. Several possible reasons are suggested.  相似文献   

19.
Multiple-expert hazard/risk assessments have considerable precedent, particularly in the Yucca Mountain site characterization studies. A certain amount of expert knowledge is needed to interpret the geological data used in a probabilistic data analysis. As may be the situation in science, experts disagree on crucial points. Consequently, lack of consensus in some studies is a sure outcome. In this paper, we present a Bayesian approach to statistical modeling in volcanic hazard assessment for the Yucca Mountain site. Specifically, we show that the expert opinion on the site disruption parameterp is incorporated into the prior distribution, π(p), based on geological information that is available. Moreover, π(p) can combine all available geological information motivated by conflicting but realistic arguments (e.g., simulation, cluster analysis, structural control, ..., etc.). The incorporated uncertainties about the probability of repository disruptionp eventually will be averaged out by taking the expectation over π(p). We use the following priors in the analysis: (1) priors selected for mathematical convenience: Beta (r,s) for (r,s) = (2, 2), (3, 3), (5, 5), (2, 1),(2, 8), (8, 2), and (1, 1);and (2) three priors motivated by expert knowledge. Sensitivity analysis is performed for each prior distribution. Our study concludes that estimated values of hazard based on the priors selected for mathematical simplicity are uniformly higher than those obtained based on the priors motivated by expert knowledge. And, the model using the prior, Beta (8, 2), yields the highest hazard (=2.97 × 10-2 . The minimum hazard is produced by the “three-expert prior” (i.e., values of p are equally likely for p = 10-3, 10-2,and 10-1 . The estimate of the hazard is 1.39 × 10-3, which is only about one order of magnitude smaller than the maximum value. The term, “hazard, ” is defined as the probability of at least one disruption of a repository at the Yucca Mountain site by basaltic volcanism for the next 10,000 years.  相似文献   

20.
Two different field-based methods are used here to calculate feldspar dissolution rates in the Topopah Spring Tuff, the host rock for the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The center of the tuff is a high silica rhyolite, consisting largely of alkali feldspar (60 wt%) and quartz polymorphs (35 wt%) that formed by devitrification of rhyolitic glass as the tuff cooled. First, the abundance of secondary aluminosilicates is used to estimate the cumulative amount of feldspar dissolution over the history of the tuff, and an ambient dissolution rate is calculated by using the estimated thermal history. Second, the feldspar dissolution rate is calculated by using measured Sr isotope compositions for the pore water and rock. Pore waters display systematic changes in Sr isotopic composition with depth that are caused by feldspar dissolution. The range in dissolution rates determined from secondary mineral abundances varies from 10−16 to 10−17 mol s−1 kg tuff−1 with the largest uncertainty being the effect of the early thermal history of the tuff. Dissolution rates based on pore water Sr isotopic data were calculated by treating percolation flux parametrically, and vary from 10−15 to 10−16 mol s−1 kg tuff−1 for percolation fluxes of 15 mm a−1 and 1 mm a−1, respectively. Reconciling the rates from the two methods requires that percolation fluxes at the sampled locations be a few mm a−1 or less. The calculated feldspar dissolution rates are low relative to other measured field-based feldspar dissolution rates, possibly due to the age (12.8 Ma) of the unsaturated system at Yucca Mountain; because oxidizing and organic-poor conditions limit biological activity; and/or because elevated silica concentrations in the pore waters (50 mg L−1) may inhibit feldspar dissolution.  相似文献   

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