The Albany Research Center (ARC) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has been conducting research to investigate the feasibility of mineral carbonation as a method for carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration. The research is part of a Mineral Carbonation Study Program within the Office of Fossil Energy in DOE. Other participants in this Program include DOE?s Los Alamos National Laboratory and National Energy Technology Laboratory, Arizona State University, and Science Applications International Corporation. The research has focused on ex-situ mineral carbonation in an aqueous system. The process developed at ARC reacts a slurry of magnesium silicate mineral with supercritical CO2 to produce a solid magnesium carbonate product. To date, olivine and serpentine have been used as the mineral reactant, but other magnesium silicates could be used as well. The process is designed to simulate the natural serpentinization reaction of ultramafic minerals, and consequently, these results may also be applicable to strategies for in-situ geological sequestration. Baseline tests were begun in distilled water on ground products of foundry-grade olivine. Tests conducted at 150 C and subcritical CO2 pressures (50 atm) resulted in very slow conversion to carbonate. Increasing the partial pressure of CO2 to supercritical (>73 atm) conditions, coupled with agitation …

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Monitoring of geologic sequestration projects will require the measurement of many different parameters and processes at many different locations at the surface and in the subsurface. The greatest need for technology development is for monitoring of processes in the subsurface in the region between wells. The approach to fitting this need is to build upon decades of experience in use of geophysics in the oil and gas industry. These methods can be optimized for CO2 monitoring, and customized and extended in order to meet the need for cost-effective methods applicable to saline disposal sites, coal bed methane sites, as well as oil and gas reservoir sequestration sites. The strategy for development of cost-effective methods follows a three step iterative process of sensitivity analysis using numerical and experimental techniques, field testing at a range of scale in different formations, and analysis and integration of complimentary types of data.

Between 1965 and 1979 there were five documented and one or more inferred attempts to stimulate the production from hydrocarbon reservoirs by detonating nuclear devices in reservoir strata. Of the five documented tests, three were carried out by the US in low-permeability, natural-gas bearing, sandstone-shale formations, and two were done in the USSR within oil-bearing carbonates. The objectives of the US stimulation efforts were to increase porosity and permeability in a reservoir around a specific well by creating a chimney of rock rubble with fractures extending beyond it, and to connect superimposed reservoir layers. In the USSR, the intent was to extensively fracture an existing reservoir in the more general vicinity of producing wells, again increasing overall permeability and porosity. In both countries, the ultimate goals were to increase production rates and ultimate recovery from the reservoirs. Subsurface explosive devices ranging from 2.3 to about 100 kilotons were used at depths ranging from 1208 m (3963 ft) to 2568 m (8427 ft). Post-shot problems were encountered, including smaller-than-calculated fracture zones, formation damage, radioactivity of the product, and dilution of the BTU value of tie natural gas with inflammable gases created by the explosion. Reports also suggest that production-enhancement factors from …

Article describes the destructive paths of the tornadoes that struck Tinker Air Force Base on March 20 and March 25, 1948, and pays tribute to Robert C. Miller and Ernest J. Fawbush, the two weathermen who predicted the second tornado and changed the field of weather forecasting forever.

The 1999 Oil & Gas Conference was cosponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Fossil Energy, Federal Energy Technology Center (FETC) and National Petroleum Technology Office (NPTO) on June 28 to 30 in Dallas, Texas. The Oil & Gas Conference theme, Technology Options for Producer Survival, reflects the need for development and implementation of new technologies to ensure an affordable, reliable energy future. The conference was attended by nearly 250 representatives from industry, academia, national laboratories, DOE, and other Government agencies. Three preconference workshops (Downhole Separation Technologies: Is it Applicable for Your Operations, Exploring and developing Naturally Fractured Low-Permeability Gas Reservoirs from the Rocky Mountains to the Austin Chalk, and Software Program Applications) were held. The conference agenda included an opening plenary session, three platform sessions (Sessions 2 and 3 were split into 2 concurrent topics), and a poster presentation reception. The platform session topics were Converting Your Resources Into Reserves (Sessions 1 and 2A), Clarifying Your Subsurface Vision (Session 2B), and High Performance, Cost Effective Drilling, Completion, Stimulation Technologies (Session 3B). In total, there were 5 opening speakers, 30 presenters, and 16 poster presentations.

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A solution mining facility at the Eddy Potash Mine, Eddy County, New Mexico has been proposed that will utilize salinity gradient solar pond (SGSP) technology to supply industrial process thermal energy. The process will include underground dissolution of potassium chloride (KCl) from pillars and other reserves remaining after completion of primary room and pillar mining using recirculating solutions heated in the SGSP. Production of KCl will involve cold crystallization followed by a cooling pond stage, with the spent brine being recirculated in a closed loop back to the SGSP for reheating. This research uses SGSP as a renewable, clean energy source to optimize the entire mining process, minimize environmental wastes, provide a safe, more economical extraction process and reduce the need for conventional processing by crushing, grinding and flotation. The applications of SGSP technology will not only save energy in the extraction and beneficiation processes, but also will produce excess energy available for power generation, desalination, and auxiliary structure heating.

The Cretaceous strata that fill the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado were shortened in a generally N-S to NN13-SSW direction during the Laramide orogeny. This shortening was the result of compression of the strata between southward indentation of the San Juan Uplift at the north edge of the basin and northward to northeastward indentation of the Zuni Uplift from the south. Right-lateral strike-slip motion was concentrated at the eastern and western basin margins of the basin to form the Hogback Monocline and the Nacimiento Uplift at the same time, and small amounts of shear may have been pervasive within the basin as well. Vertical extension fractures, striking N-S to NNE-SSW with local variations (parallel to the Laramide maximum horizontal compressive stress), formed in both Mesaverde and Dakota sandstones under this system, and are found in outcrops and in the subsurface of the San Juan Basin. The immature Mesaverde sandstones typically contain relatively long, irregular, vertical extension fractures, whereas the quartzitic Dakota sandstones contain more numerous, shorter, sub-parallel, closely spaced, extension fractures. Conjugate shear planes in several orientations are also present locally in the Dakota strata.

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The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is a US Department of Energy (DOE) facility for the permanent disposal of defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste. US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations specify that the DOE must demonstrate on a sound basis that the WIPP disposal system will effectively contain long-lived alpha-emitting radionuclides within its boundaries for 10,000 years following closure. In 1996, the DOE submitted the ''40 CFR Part 191 Compliance Certification Application for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant'' (CCA) to the EPA. The CCA proposed that the WIPP site complies with EPA's regulatory requirements. Contained within the CCA are descriptions of the scientific research conducted to characterize the properties of the WIPP site and the probabilistic performance assessment (PA) conducted to predict the containment properties of the WIPP disposal system. In May 1998, the EPA certified that the TRU waste disposal at the WIPP complies with its regulations. Waste disposal operations at WIPP commenced on March 28, 1999. The 1996 WIPP PA model of the disposal system included conceptual and mathematical representations of key hydrologic and geochemical processes. These key processes were identified over a 22-year period involving data collection, data interpretation, computer models, and sensitivity studies to evaluate the importance …

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is the first operational repository designed for the safe disposal of transuranic (TRU) radioactive waste from the defense programs of the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for certifications and regulation of the WIPP facility for the radioactive components of the waste. The EPA has promulgated general radioactive waste disposal standards at 40 CFR Part 191. and WIPP-specific criteria to implement and interpret the generic disposal standards at 40 CFR Part 194. In October 1996. the DOE submitted its Compliance Certification Application (CCA) to the EPA to demonstrate compliance with the disposal standards at Subparts B and C of 40 CFR Part 191. This paper summarizes the development of the overall legal framework for radioactive waste disposal at the WIPP, the parallel development of the WIPP performance assessment (PA), and how the EPA disposal standards and implementing criteria formed the basis for the CCA WIPP PA. The CCA resulted in a certification in May 1998 by the EPA of the WIPP'S compliance with the EPA's disposal standard, thus enabling the WIPP to begin radioactive waste disposal.

A process model was used to better understand the controls on the chemical evolution of drainage in a historic mining district. At the Pecos Mine Operable Unit, New Mexico, drainage near the waste rock pile is acidic (pH varies from 3.0--5.0) and carries high concentrations of Zn, Al, Cu and Pb. As drainage flows toward the Pecos River, pH increases to greater than 7 and heavy metal content decreases. A process model of natural attenuation in this drainage shows the main controls on pH are reaction with a local bedrock that contains limestone, and concurrent mixing with tributary streams. Models that account for both calcite dissolution and mixing reproduce the observed decrease in aqueous metal concentrations with increasing pH. Contaminant concentrations attenuate primarily via two distinct pathways: Al, Cu, Fe and Pb precipitate directly from solution, whereas Zn, Mg, Mn and SO{sub 4} concentrations decrease primarily through dilution. Additionally, Pb adsorbs to precipitating hydroxide surfaces.

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Underground nuclear test sites offer an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate processes relevant to high-level waste repository performance in the absence of engineered barriers. Radionuclide migration programs at the Nevada Test Site represent a twenty-five year systematic investigation of the diverse radiologic source terms residual from weapons testing and the evolution of the hydrologic source term which comprises those radionuclides dissolved in or otherwise available for transport by groundwater. The Nevada Test Site shares actinide source terms, correlative geology, an identical tectonic setting, similar climate, and a thick unsaturated zone with the adjacent proposed Yucca Mountain high-level waste repository and provides a natural laboratory to assess long-term radionuclide transport in the near field. Analog studies may ultimately help validate predictions of radionuclide transport from the Yucca Mountain repository.

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Options for sequestration of CO{sub 2} are best viewed in light of the regional distribution of CO{sub 2} sources and potential sequestration sites. This study examines the distribution of carbon emissions from fossil fuel power plants in California and their proximity to three types of reservoirs that may be suitable for sequestration: (1) active or depleted oil fields, (2) active or depleted gas fields, and (3) brine formations. This paper also presents a preliminary assessment of the feasibility of sequestering CO{sub 2} generated from large fossil-fuel fired power plants in California and discusses the comparative advantages of three different types of reservoirs for this purpose. Based on a volumetric analysis of sequestration capacity and current CO{sub 2} emission rates from oil/gas fired power plants, this analysis suggests that oil reservoirs, gas fields and brine formations can all contribute significantly to sequestration in California. Together they could offer the opportunity to meet both short and long term needs. In the near term, oil and gas reservoirs are the most promising because the trapping structures have already stood the test of time and opportunities for offsetting the cost of sequestration with revenues from enhanced oil and gas production. In the long term, …

The mission of the NABIR program is to provide the scientific understanding needed to use natural processes and to develop new methods to accelerate those processes for the bioremediation of contaminated soils, sediments and groundwater at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facilities. The program is implemented through seven interrelated scientific research elements (Assessment, Bacterial Transport, Biogeochemical Dynamics, Bimolecular Science and Engineering, Biotransformation and Biodegradation, Community Dynamics/Microbial Ecology and System Engineering, Integration, Prediction and Optimization); and through an element called Bioremediation and its Societal Implications and Concerns (BASIC), which addresses societal issues and concerns of stakeholders through communication and collaboration among all relevant groups, including community leaders and representatives, engineers, scientists, lawyers, etc. The initial emphasis of NABIR program research is on the bioremediation of metals and radionuclides in the subsurface below the root zone, including both thick vadose and saturated zones. The material presented at this year's workshop focuses on research funded in FY 1998-2000 by DOE's Office of Science through its Office of Biological and Environmental Research. Sixty-eight projects have been funded in the scientific program elements, and two have been funded in the BASIC program. Abstracts of these programs are summarized in this booklet, along with abstracts of …

This is the first of two papers describing the application of simulator-optimization methods to a natural gas storage field development planning problem. The results presented here illustrate the large gains in cost-effectiveness that can be made by employing the reservoir simulator as the foundation for a wide-ranging search for solutions to management problems. The current paper illustrates the application of these techniques given a deterministic view of the reservoir. A companion paper will illustrate adaptations needed to accommodate uncertainties regarding reservoir properties.

Experimental studies involving equilibrium solubility and dissolution/precipitation rates were initiated on aluminum hydroxide phases prevalent under geothermal reservoir conditions. A large capacity, hydrogen-electrode concentration cell (HECC) was constructed specifically for this purpose.

Electro-osmosis, a coupled-flow phenomenon in which an applied electrical potential gradient drives water flow, may be used to induce water flow through fine-grained sediments. We plan to use this technology to remediate chlorinated solvent-contaminated clayey zones at the LLNL site. The electro-osmotic conductivity (k{sub e}) determined from bench-top studies for a core extracted from a sediment zone 36.4-36.6 m below surface was initially 7.37 x 10{sup -10} m{sup 2}/s-V, decreasing to 3.44 x 10{sup -10} m{sup 2}/s-V, after electro-osmotically transporting 0.70 pore volumes of water through it (195 ml). Hydraulic conductivity (k{sub h}) of the same core was initially measured to be 5.00 x 10{sup -10} m/s, decreasing to 4.08 x 10{sup -10} m/s at the end of processing. This decline in permeability is likely due to formation of a chemical precipitation zone within the core. Water splitting products and ions electromigrate and precipitate within the core; H{sup +} and metal cations migrate toward the cathode, and OH{sup -} from the cathode moves toward the anode. We are now exploring how to minimize this effect using pH control. The significance of this technology is that for this core, a 3 V/cm voltage gradient produced an initial effective hydraulic conductivity of …

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