DOE seeks subsurface barrier verification technology

摘要

Advances in subsurface barrier technology being developed for the Department of Energy (DOE) have focused the department's attention on the lack of methods available to detect discontinuities in barriers without excavating. Such methods are needed to verify injected slurries of polymers or montan wax (which harden into barriers) and barriers such as frozen soil walls or even conventional barriers of interlocking sheet piling. As DOE looks for suitable methods, researchers have begun to debate the pros and cons of different approaches. Last year DOE issued Technical Needs Statement IS-9 to solicit proposals for technologies or methods that could "detect the location and measure the magnitude of barrier discontinuities." In dealing with magnitude, "researchers must recognize that important discontinuities may exist on a micro scale (fractions of an inch)," the IS-9 states.