Evaporative Evolution of Brines from Synthetic Topopah Spring Tuff Pore Water, Yucca Mountain, NV

摘要

We are investigating the evaporation of pore water representative of the designated high- level-nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain, NV to predict the range of brine compositions that may contact waste containers. These brines could form potentially corrosive thin films on the containers and impact their long-term integrity. Here we report the geochemistry of a relatively complex synthetic Topopah Spring Tuff pore water that was progressively evaporated in a series of experiments. The experiments were conducted in a closed vessel, heated to 95C, and purged with atmospheric COz. Aqueous samples of the evaporating solution were taken and analyzed to determine the evolving water chemistry, and the final solid precipitate was analyzed by X-ray diffraction.