Repository Technology Program activities, FY 1988

Our technical activities in FY 1988 included instrument selection and evaluation, calculational work, and simulator development. Near the end of the fiscal year, we began preparing several topical reports to document our results. This fiscal year, we continued developing three-dimensional numerical simulators to model coupled hydrologic-and mechanical-rock mass responses and, thus, to provide representative numerical tools for understanding and calculating these in situ processes. We also began scoping calculations in the second half of FY 1988 to evaluate ERE design criteria, but this work was redirected late in the year when the DOE/AECL Subsidiary Agreement was set aside. Our work in developing and evaluating experimental techniques focused on total pressure measurements, moisture content measurement, and tracer detection instrumentation for sealing experiments and for rock-mass-response field tests. At the end of the fiscal year, we completed a review of measurement technology for instrumenting migration/sorption tests to help define the technological requirements in these areas. By the end of FY 1988, we had completed a review of the existing codes for simulating reactive transport; we are using the results of this review to help formulate plans for future activities in this area. The following sections describe the major RTP tasks and activitiesmore » at LLNL in more detail, and they include our FY 1988 accomplishments in these areas. 8 refs., 22 figs.« less