Earth Sciences Commons^™

Final Report: Nevada System Of Higher Education Quality Assurance Program, Nevada System Of Higher Education

Publications (YM)

The principal purpose of the cooperative agreement was to develop and continue providing the public and the Office of Repository Development (ORD) of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) with an independently derived, unbiased body of scientific and engineering data concerning the study of Yucca Mountain as a potential high-level radioactive waste repository. Under this agreement, the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE), formerly the University and Community CollegeSystem of Nevada (UCCSN), performed scientific and engineering research, and maintained and fostered collaborative working relationships between government and academic researchers. In performing these activities, …

Influence Of Lithophysae Geometry On Mechanical Properties Of Hydro-Stone®, Moses Karakouzian, Doug Rigby

Publications (YM)

85 percent of YM drift tunnels will be constructed in lithophysal volcanic tuff.

Rock behavior depends on porosity.

Limited experimental data exists to characterize rock porosity and dependencies on properties such as σc , E, and n.

Long-Term Mechanical Behavior Of Yucca Mountain Tuff And Its Variability, Jaak J.K. Daemen, Lumin Ma, Guohua Zhao

Publications (YM)

The study of the long term mechanical behavior of Yucca Mountain tuffs is important for several reasons. Long term stability of excavations will affect accessibility (e.g. for inspection purposes), and retrievability. Long term instabilities may induce loading of drip shields and/or emplaced waste, thus affecting drip shield and/or waste package corrosion. Failure of excavations will affect airflow, may affect water flow, and may affect temperature distributions.

The long term mechanical behavior of “hard” rocks remains an elusive topic, loaded with uncertainties. A variety of approaches have been used to improve the understanding of this complex subject, but it is doubtful …

Long-Term Mechanical Behavior Of Yucca Mountain Tuffs, And Its Variability, Jaak J.K. Daemen, George Danko, Jaime Gonzalez, Amy J. Smiecinski, Raymond E. Keeler

Publications (YM)

We propose to continue the investigation of the long term strength of Yucca Mountain tuffs, with particular emphasis on tuffs from and near the emplacement horizon. We propose to also continue and expand the investigation of the spatial variability of rock strength and stiffness. An intrinsic component of this planned rock testing is the testing of rock joints. Although the emphasis is on tests aimed at determining long term strength, as part of the testing measurements of stiffness also are collected, and will be collected, reported, and analyzed.

Experimental Investigation Of Time Dependent Behavior Of Welded Topopah Spring Tuff, Lumin Ma

Publications (YM)

Four types of laboratory tests have been performed. Specimens were attained from four lithophysal zones of the welded Topopah Spring Tuff unit at Yucca Mountain, Nevada: upper lithophysal, middle nonlithophysal, lower lithophysal and lower nonlithophysal zones. Two types of tests are conducted to study time-dependent behavior: constant strain rate and creep tests. Sixty five specimens from the middle nonlithophysal zone were tested at six strain rates: 10 , 10 , 10 , 10 , 10 , and 10 . Test durations range from 2 seconds to 7 days. Fourteen specimens from middle nonlithophysal, lower lithophysal and lower nonlithophysal zones are …

Stress Corrosion Cracking Studies, K. S. Raja, S. Namjoshi, Amy J. Smiecinski

Publications (YM)

This document reports on the activities for Task 17 of the U.S. DOE/UCCSN Cooperative Agreement Number DE-FC28-98NV12081. There are three subtasks in this Task, the experimental results, discussions, and conclusions of which are presented in the following sections. Data Sources and Electronic Data Control The Data Identification numbers for the data, graphs, and tables in this report, as submitted to the Data Management Database, are tabulated below. The table also includes the source files for the said data as well as the corresponding scientific notebooks where the data can be found. All data in the Q section of the report …

Yucca Mountain Climate Technical Support Representative, Saxon E. Sharpe, Dick Reinhardt, Eric Smistad, Don Baepler, Amy J. Smiecinski

Publications (YM)

The principal investigator (PI), Saxon Sharpe, for Task ORD-FY04-012, DOE Cooperative Agreement DE-FC28-04RW12232, will serve as Yucca Mountain Climate Technical Support Representative for the Department of Energy (DOE) in a series of activities related to past, present, and future climate for the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) climate program.

As stated in the Viability Assessment of a Repository at Yucca Mountain: “Climate and its changes over time directly affect system performance at Yucca Mountain.” Currently, information from climate studies is used in models that support the Total System Performance Assessment and Licensing Application. It is a model component of all key …

Scientific And Engineering Studies Of Systems, Structures, And Components Important To Safety For A Potential Repository At Yucca Mountain, Nevada, Ian Buckle, E. Manos Maragakis

Publications (YM)

TASK 26: Upgrade of Earthquake Simulation Facilities in the Large-Scale Structures Laboratory at University of Nevada Reno

The objective of this Task was to purchase, install and commission the equipment necessary to upgrade two existing shake tables in the Structures Laboratory at UNR, from uniaxial to biaxial motion.

It was recognized that a parallel effort, funded by NSF and HUD, to add a third biaxial table with identical properties to the upgraded existing tables, would be undertaken at the same time.