The Environment Created By A Nuclear Explosion In Salt

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ISBN 13 :
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Download or read book Earth Deformation from a Nuclear Detonation in Salt written by and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gnome, an underground test of a nuclear device, was located at a point 303 meters on a bearing N49 deg 43'11''E from the center of Section 34, Township 23 South, Range 30 East, New Mexico Principal Meridian, at an elevation of about 674 meters referred to mean sea level or at a depth from the surface of 361 meters. This site is about 40 km southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico, in salt beds of the Salado formation in the Delaware Basin. The topography, geology, and structure of the site are described. Theoretical calculations indicated that the effects of the Gnome nuclear explosion would result in a cavity 17 meters in radius and total tunnel collapse to a point 125 meters from the blast. E ssentially no permanent displacement was expected in the shaft. Damage was not expected in the Shell gas well, 9.3 km distant; the potash mines, the nearest 13 km distant; nor in Carlsbad Caverns, 55 km distant. The theoretical maximum limit of displacement of a free particle at the surface was 3.035 meters. This was expected to develop fractures and visible permanent displacements. At the Gnome shot point a relatively stable cavity about 40 meters high was formed that could be used for underground storage of gas, petroleum, or waste products or to assist in mineral extraction. Surface effects from the explosion were minor, because the lithology, geologic structures, and topography were favorable for minimizing effects. The only potentiallydangerous effect of the deformation was the escape of radiation, and this could probably be prevented by additional stemming in the tunnel or by firing the shot in a vertical drill hole. It was concluded that nuclear detonations of 3 plus or minus 1-kt yield can be fired in horizontally-layered salt without damaging shafts at distances of 400 or more meters, and a drift near a nuclear detonation in salt does not suffer total collapse as it does in tuff and granite and as it was theorized would happen to a point 125 meters from the shot point. It was also concluded that a 5-kt nuclear explosion can be detonated in halite 200 meters under a water-bearing formation (aquifer) without so seriously fracturing both the upper part of the halite and the aquifer that water would penetrate downward to the cavity or to any part of the mine. The significantly different results between Gnome and Logan events, both having a yield of approximately 5-kt (Gnome 3 plus or minus 1-kt), demonstrate that different environmental characteristics will almost certainly cause differing effects from nuclear explosions. There is a critical need to reduce the necessity for interpolation by increasing both empirical and theoretical knowledge by other experiments in different environments. The transient displacement at the surface, reported to be 1.5 meters, was just half the theoretical maximum limit of 3 meters estimated for displacement of a free particle at the surface. (C.H.).