Monthly newspaper from Mineral Wells, Texas that includes history and travel stories along with advertising.

Using the conventional well cements consisting of the calcium silicate hydrates (CaO-SiO{sub 2}-H{sub 2}O system) and calcium aluminum silicate hydrates (CaO-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-SiO{sub 2}-H{sub 2}O system) for the integrity of geothermal wells, the serious concern confronting the cementing industries was their poor performance in mechanically supporting the metallic well casing pipes and in mitigating the pipe's corrosion in very harsh geothermal reservoirs. These difficulties are particularly acute in two geological regions: One is the deep hot downhole area ({approx} 1700 m depth at temperatures of {approx} 320 C) that contains hyper saline water with high concentrations of CO{sub 2} (> 40,000 ppm) in conjunction with {approx} 100 ppm H{sub 2}S at a mild acid of pH {approx} 5.0; the other is the upper well region between the well's surface and {approx} 1000 m depth at temperatures up to 200 C. The specific environment of the latter region is characterized by highly concentrated H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} (pH < 1.5) brine containing at least 5000 ppm CO{sub 2}. When these conventional cements are emplaced in these harsh environments, their major shortcoming is their susceptibility to reactions with hot CO{sub 2} and H{sub 2}SO4, thereby causing their deterioration brought about by CO{sub 2}-catalyzed …

“Enchanted Clays: 44th Annual Meeting of the Clay Minerals Society” was held in early June 2007 in beautiful and historic Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Santa Fe provided an idyllic location in the southwestern United States for the attendees to enjoy technical and social sessions while soaking up the diverse culture and wonderful climate of New Mexico—The Land of Enchantment. The meeting included a large and varied group of scientists, sharing knowledge and ideas, benefitting from technical interactions, and enjoying the wonderful historic and enchanted environs of Santa Fe. Including significant number of international scientists, the meeting was attended by approximately two hundred participants. The meeting included three days of technical sessions (oral and poster presentations), three days of field trips to clay and geological sites of northern New Mexico, and a full day workshop on the stabilization of carbon by clays. Details can be found at the meeting web site: www.sandia.gov/clay.

Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 556, Dry Wells and Surface Release Points, is located in Areas 6 and 25 of the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. Corrective Action Unit 556 is comprised of four corrective action sites (CASs) listed below: •06-20-04, National Cementers Dry Well •06-99-09, Birdwell Test Hole •25-60-03, E-MAD Stormwater Discharge and Piping •25-64-01, Vehicle Washdown and Drainage Pit These sites are being investigated because existing information on the nature and extent of potential contamination is insufficient to evaluate and recommend corrective action alternatives. Additional information will be obtained by conducting a corrective action investigation before evaluating corrective action alternatives and selecting the appropriate corrective action for each CAS. The results of the field investigation will support a defensible evaluation of viable corrective action alternatives that will be presented in the Corrective Action Decision Document.

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is conducting pilot scale evaluations of the performance and cost of innovative water treatment technologies aimed at meeting the recently revised arsenic maximum contaminant level (MCL) for drinking water. The standard of 10 {micro}g/L (10 ppb) is effective as of January 2006. The first pilot tests have been conducted in New Mexico where over 90 sites that exceed the new MCL have been identified by the New Mexico Environment Department. The pilot test described in this report was conducted in Socorro New Mexico between January 2005 and July 2005. The pilot demonstration is a project of the Arsenic Water Technology Partnership program, a partnership between the American Water Works Association Research Foundation (AwwaRF), SNL and WERC (A Consortium for Environmental Education and Technology Development). The Sandia National Laboratories pilot demonstration at the Socorro Springs site obtained arsenic removal performance data for five different adsorptive media under constant ambient flow conditions. Well water at Socorro Springs has approximately 42 ppb arsenic in the oxidized (arsenate-As(V)) redox state with moderate amounts of silica, low concentrations of iron and manganese and a slightly alkaline pH (8). The study provides estimates of the capacity (bed volumes until breakthrough at 10 …

In 1993, Raytheon Services Nevada completed a review of natural resource literature and other sources to identify potentially exploitable resources and potential future land uses near the Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site (RWMS) of the Nevada Test Site (NTS), Nye County, Nevada, that could lead to future inadvertent human intrusion and subsequent release of radionuclides to the accessible environment. National Security Technologies, LLC, revised the original limited-distribution document to conform to current editorial standards and U.S. Department of Energy requirements for public release. The researchers examined the potential for future development of sand, gravel, mineral, petroleum, water resources, and rural land uses, such as agriculture, grazing, and hunting. The study was part of the performance assessment for Greater Confinement Disposal boreholes. Sand and gravel are not considered exploitable site resources because the materials are common throughout the area and the quality at the Area 5 RWMS is not ideal for typical commercial uses. Site information also indicates a very low mineral potential for the area. None of the 23 mining districts in southern Nye County report occurrences of economic mineral deposits in unconsolidated alluvium. The potential for oil and natural gas is low for southern Nye County. No occurrences …

Four new CERCLA groundwater monitoring wells were installed in the 300-FF-5 Operable Unit in FY 2006 to fulfill commitments for well installations proposed in the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order Milestone M-24-57. Wells were installed to collect data to determine the distribution of process uranium and other contaminants of potential concern in groundwater. These data will also support uranium contaminant transport simulations and the wells will supplement the water quality monitoring network for the 300-FF-5 OU. This report supplies the information obtained during drilling, characterization, and installation of the new groundwater monitoring wells. This document also provides a compilation of hydrogeologic, geochemical, and well construction information obtained during drilling, well development, and sample collection/analysis activities.

Weekly newspaper from Rusk, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

This document, which makes changes to Phase II Groundwater Flow Model of Corrective Action Unit 98: Frenchman Flat, Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada, S-N/99205--074, Revision 0 (May 2006) was prepared to address review comments on this final document provided by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) in a letter dated June 20, 2006. The document includes revised pages that address NDEP review comments and comments from other document users. Change bars are included on these pages to identify where the text was revised. In addition to the revised pages, the following clarifications are made: • Section 6.0 Conceptual Model Uncertainty Analyses. Please note that in this section figures showing the observed versus simulated well head (Figures 6-1, 6-5, 6-7, 6-16, 6-28, 6-30, 6-32, 6-34, 6-37, 6-42, 6-47, 6-52, 6-57, 6-62, 6-71, and 6-86) have a vertical break in scale on the y axis. • Section 7.0 Parameter Sensitivity Analysis. In Section 7.2, the parameter perturbation analysis defines two components of the objective function PHI. These two components include the WELL component that represents the head portion of the objective function as measured in wells and the FLUX component that represents the lateral boundary flux portion of the objective …

The three-dimensional hydrostratigraphic framework model for the Rainier Mesa-Shoshone Mountain Corrective Action Unit was completed in Fiscal Year 2006. The model extends from eastern Pahute Mesa in the north to Mid Valley in the south and centers on the former nuclear testing areas at Rainier Mesa, Aqueduct Mesa, and Shoshone Mountain. The model area also includes an overlap with the existing Underground Test Area Corrective Action Unit models for Yucca Flat and Pahute Mesa. The model area is geologically diverse and includes un-extended yet highly deformed Paleozoic terrain and high volcanic mesas between the Yucca Flat extensional basin on the east and caldera complexes of the Southwestern Nevada Volcanic Field on the west. The area also includes a hydrologic divide between two groundwater sub-basins of the Death Valley regional flow system. A diverse set of geological and geophysical data collected over the past 50 years was used to develop a structural model and hydrostratigraphic system for the model area. Three deep characterization wells, a magnetotelluric survey, and reprocessed gravity data were acquired specifically for this modeling initiative. These data and associated interpretive products were integrated using EarthVision{reg_sign} software to develop the three-dimensional hydrostratigraphic framework model. Crucial steps in the model …

Weekly newspaper from De Leon, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Stamford, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) established an Extreme Drilling Lab to engineer effective and efficient drilling technologies viable at depths greater than 20,000 feet. This paper details the challenges of ultra-deep drilling, documents reports of decreased drilling rates as a result of increasing fluid pressure and temperature, and describes NETL’s Research and Development activities. NETL is invested in laboratory-scale physical simulation. Their physical simulator will have capability of circulating drilling fluids at 30,000 psi and 480 °F around a single drill cutter. This simulator will not yet be operational by the planned conference dates; therefore, the results will be limited to identification of leading hypotheses of drilling phenomena and NETL’s test plans to validate or refute such theories. Of particular interest to the Extreme Drilling Lab’s studies are the combinatorial effects of drilling fluid pressure, drilling fluid properties, rock properties, pore pressure, and drilling parameters, such as cutter rotational speed, weight on bit, and hydraulics associated with drilling fluid introduction to the rock-cutter interface. A detailed discussion of how each variable is controlled in a laboratory setting will be part of the conference paper and presentation.

This report documents transport data and data analyses for Yucca Flat/Climax Mine CAU 97. The purpose of the data compilation and related analyses is to provide the primary reference to support parameterization of the Yucca Flat/Climax Mine CAU transport model. Specific task objectives were as follows: • Identify and compile currently available transport parameter data and supporting information that may be relevant to the Yucca Flat/Climax Mine CAU. • Assess the level of quality of the data and associated documentation. • Analyze the data to derive expected values and estimates of the associated uncertainty and variability. The scope of this document includes the compilation and assessment of data and information relevant to transport parameters for the Yucca Flat/Climax Mine CAU subsurface within the context of unclassified source-term contamination. Data types of interest include mineralogy, aqueous chemistry, matrix and effective porosity, dispersivity, matrix diffusion, matrix and fracture sorption, and colloid-facilitated transport parameters.

This is the final report of the NUMO-LBNL collaborative project: Feature Detection, Characterization and Confirmation Methodology under NUMO-DOE/LBNL collaboration agreement, the task description of which can be found in the Appendix. We examine site characterization projects from several sites in the world. The list includes Yucca Mountain in the USA, Tono and Horonobe in Japan, AECL in Canada, sites in Sweden, and Olkiluoto in Finland. We identify important geologic features and parameters common to most (or all) sites to provide useful information for future repository siting activity. At first glance, one could question whether there was any commonality among the sites, which are in different rock types at different locations. For example, the planned Yucca Mountain site is a dry repository in unsaturated tuff, whereas the Swedish sites are situated in saturated granite. However, the study concludes that indeed there are a number of important common features and parameters among all the sites--namely, (1) fault properties, (2) fracture-matrix interaction (3) groundwater flux, (4) boundary conditions, and (5) the permeability and porosity of the materials. We list the lessons learned from the Yucca Mountain Project and other site characterization programs. Most programs have by and large been quite successful. Nonetheless, there …

This paper addresses deficiencies identified with the. Performance Assessment for Greater Confinement Disposal (GCD) Boreholes compliance with the Title 40 Code of federal Regulations (CFR) Part 191.14, "Assurance Requirements" (CFR, 1985). The Transuransic Waste Disposal Federal Review Group (TFRG). and U.S Department of Energy Headquarters , need to concur that the assurance requirements have been met at the time of closure of the Area 5 Radioactive Waste Management Site.

To identify research areas in geosciences, such as behavior of multiphase fluid-solid systems on a variety of scales, chemical migration processes in geologic media, characterization of geologic systems, and modeling and simulation of geologic systems, needed for improved energy systems.

The U.S. Department of Energy has initiated a study into possible options for stabilizing uranium at the 300 Area using polyphosphate injection. As part of this effort, PNNL will perform bench- and field-scale treatability testing designed to evaluate the efficacy of using polyphosphate injections to reduced uranium concentrations in the groundwater to meet drinking water standards (30 ug/L) in situ. This technology works by forming phosphate minerals (autunite and apatite) in the aquifer that directly sequester the existing aqueous uranium in autunite minerals and precipitates apatite minerals for sorption and long term treatment of uranium migrating into the treatment zone, thus reducing current and future aqueous uranium concentrations. Polyphosphate injection was selected for testing based on technology screening as part of the 300-FF-5 Phase III Feasibility Study for treatment of uranium in the 300-Area.

Weekly newspaper from Dublin, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This paper summarizes our research to date into operatingEGS with CO2. Our modeling studies indicate that CO2 would achieve morefavorable heat extraction than aqueous fluids. The peculiarthermophysicalproperties of CO2 give rise to unusual features in the dependence ofenergy recovery on thermodynamic conditions and time. Preliminarygeochemical studies suggest that CO2 may avoid unfavorable rock-fluidinteractions that have been encountered in water-basedsystems. To morefully evaluate the potential of EGS with CO2 will require an integratedresearch programme of model development, and laboratory and fieldstudies.

Weekly newspaper from De Leon, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.