摘要: Mechanical and hydrological properties of rock salt provide excellent bases for211geological isolation of hazardous materials. Regulatory compliance determinations 211for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) stand as testament... 展开 Mechanical and hydrological properties of rock salt provide excellent bases for211geological isolation of hazardous materials. Regulatory compliance determinations 211for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) stand as testament to the widely held 211conclusion that salt provides excellent isolation properties. The WIPP saga began 211in the 1950s when the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recommended a salt 211vault as a promising solution to the national problem of nuclear waste disposal. 211For over 20 years, the Scientific basis for the NAS recommendation has been 211fortified by Sandia National Laboratories through a series of large scale field 211tests and laboratory investigations of salt properties. These scientific 211investigations helped develop a comprehensive understanding of salt's 211deformational behavior over an applicable range of stresses and temperature. 211Sophisticated constitutive modeling, validated through underground testing, 211provides the computational ability to model long-term behavior of repository 211configurations. In concert with advancement of the mechanical models, fluid flow 211measurements showed not only that the evaporite lithology was essentially 211impermeable but that the WIPP setting was hydrologically inactive. Favorable 211mechanical properties ensure isolation of materials placed in a salt geological 211setting. Key areas of the geomechanics investigations leading to the 211certification of WIPP me in situ experiments, laboratory tests, and shaft seal 211design. 收起