Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Ground Water Level Monitoring At Yucca Mountain — A Programmatic Summary, H. Scott Page

Publications (YM)

Scope - Confirmatory study supporting previously gathered information
- Measure levels on established network of monitoring wells
- Submit data annually

Objectives - Provide measurements of known accuracy and precision
- Use manual and electronic equipment
- Provide quality assured data
- Contribute to hydrological understanding
- Support refinement of potentiometric surface
- Provide data for regional flow model
- Fulfill State of Nevada permit conditions
- Monitor transient events such as seismically induced fluctuations and precipitation-related phenomena
- Support long term monitoring and trend analysis
- Support proposed repository licensing application

Precipitation Monitoring At Yucca Mountain, Klaus J. Stetzenbach, Amanda Brandt

Publications (YM)

Objectives: Status of the Task to Date
Network Overview/ Equipment
Data Trends
Uses and Collaborative Projects
Spatial Interpolation of YM Rainfall
Storm Event Analysis
Shallow Groundwater Response to Rainfall
UE29a1 Water Level Response to Barometric Pressure Fluctuation

Yucca Mountain Climate: Past, Present, And Future, Saxon E. Sharpe

Publications (YM)

Evaluation of modern climate is necessary to relate climatic events to near-surface processes such as infiltration, runoff, and evapotranspiration.

Modern climate information also aids in environmental analyses of repository design facilities and atmospheric dispersion models.

Evaluation of past climate regimes, particularly temperature and precipitation, is needed to assess the relation of past climate to past hydrologic conditions.

Estimates of potential future climate and hydrology are needed to evaluate repository performance.

Yucca Mountain Saturated Zone Carbon-14, James Thomas, David L. Decker, Todd M. Mihevc, Ronald L. Hershey, Gary Patterson, Zell Peterman, Peter Striffler

Publications (YM)

Travel time of groundwater from beneath Yucca Mountain to down gradient areas is important to nuclear waste storage.
For this study, travel times determined by:
1) Dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) isotopes Geochemical modeling--corrected C-14 ages
2) Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) isotopes DOC ages independent of DIC reactions

Improved Parameterization To Invert Rayleigh-Wave Data For Shallow Profiles Containing Stiff Inclusions, Carlos Calderon-Macias, Barbara Luke

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Inversion of shear-wave velocity profiles from phase-velocity measurements of Rayleigh-wave energy for sites containing stiff layers can be erroneous if such layers are not characterized in the starting or reference model. Incorporation of a priori knowledge then is key for converging upon a realistic or meaningful solution. Resolving soil profiles in desert regions where stiff layers cemented with calcium carbonate are intermixed with softer, uncemented media is an application for which locating shallow stiff inclusions has important implications. Identification of the stiff layers is critical for foundation design and cost estimating of excavations. A parameterization that seems adequate for this …

Design And Performance Of A Curved-Crystal X-Ray Emission Spectrometer, A. C. Hudson, Wayne C. Stolte, Dennis W. Lindle, Renaud Guillemin

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Research

A curved-crystal x-ray emission spectrometer has been designed and built to measure 2–5 keV x-ray fluorescence resulting from a core-level excitation of gas phase species. The spectrometer can rotate 180°, allowing detection of emitted x rays with variable polarization angles, and is capable of collecting spectra over a wide energy range (20 eV wide with 0.5 eV resolution at the Cl K edge) simultaneously. In addition, the entire experimental chamber can be rotated about the incident-radiation axis by nearly 360° while maintaining vacuum, permitting measurements of angular distributions of emitted x rays.

Modeling Redox-Based Magnetohydrodynamics In Three-Dimensional Microfluidic Channels, Hussameddine S. Kabbani, Aihua Wang, Xiaobing Luo, Shizhi Qian

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

RedOx-based magnetohydrodynamic MHD[1] flows in three-dimensional microfluidic channels are investigated theoretically with a coupled mathematical model consisting of the Nernst-Planck equations for the concentrations of ionic species, the local electroneutrality condition for the electric potential, and the Navier-Stokes equations for the flow field. A potential difference is externally applied across two planar electrodes positioned along the opposing walls of a microchannel that is filled with a dilute RedOx electrolyte solution, and a Faradaic current transmitted through the solution results. The entire device is positioned under a magnetic field which can be provided by either a permanent magnet or an electromagnet. …