There is a growing need for disposal of high‐level nuclear waste. To reduce uncertainty associated with brine availability to repository excavations in salt formations, a collaboration between Sandia, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories is performing a series of borehole‐scale coupled process tests. Here, we report on the first round of the Brine Availability Test in Salt (BATS) project, a “shakedown” experiment called Phase 1s. Experimental testing included placing a resistive heater, a 260‐W radiative heater, and a 750‐W radiative heater within previously drilled horizontal boreholes at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) while monitoring temperature and water inflow. The experiments successfully achieved the targeted temperature of 120 °C when using the 750‐W radiative heater. Simulations using FEHM (Finite Element Heat and Mass transfer code) and TOUGH‐FLAC (Transport Of Unsaturated Groundwater and Heat–Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua) were able to accurately predict the coupled thermo–hydro–mechanical–chemical response of salt, matching the observed temperature and brine production. Due to the extremely low permeability of salt, these systems take many years to reach steady state when perturbed by mining activities. Long‐term numerical simulations are used to develop the initial pressure and saturation conditions. The inclusion of a damaged rock zone with higher permeability around the borehole also affects the saturation and pressure distributions and plays an important role in dissipating the potential for thermal pressurization. Knowledge gained from this round of experimentation and simulation will be used to conduct the next BATS project experiment in new boreholes at WIPP.

中文翻译：

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对层状盐中加热钻孔的温度响应和盐水可用性

处置高级核废料的需求日益增长。为了减少与盐岩储层开挖中的盐水可用性有关的不确定性，桑迪亚，洛斯阿拉莫斯和劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室之间的合作正在进行一系列井眼规模耦合过程测试。在这里，我们报告了盐中卤水可用性测试（BATS）项目的第一轮研究，这是一个称为“阶段1”的“改造”实验。实验测试包括将一个电阻加热器，一个260W辐射加热器和一个750W辐射加热器放置在废物隔离中试工厂（WIPP）先前钻的水平钻孔内，同时监测温度和水的流入。当使用750-W辐射加热器时，实验成功达到了120°C的目标温度。使用FEHM（有限元热量和质量传递代码）和TOUGH-FLAC（不饱和地下水的传递以及连续热和快速拉格朗日分析法）进行的模拟能够准确预测盐的热-水-力学-化学反应耦合，观察温度和盐水产量。由于盐的极低渗透性，当受到采矿活动的干扰时，这些系统需要很多年才能达到稳态。长期的数值模拟被用来开发初始压力和饱和条件。在钻孔周围包含具有较高渗透率的受损岩石区域也会影响饱和度和压力分布，并在消散热增压潜力方面起着重要作用。