rock ‘n’ roll table salt domes and quondam saltiness mine have been widely herald as the safest place to cast aside of radioactive waste . However , field testing intimate their protective note value has been overrated , and it may be back to the draftsmanship board in the quest to detect a safe shoes for the waste from nuclear power stations . The newsworthiness is n’t all that just for the oil and accelerator pedal industry either , since this work invoke the possible action that leak from drilling sites may accomplish further than has been acknowledged .
Keeping out groundwater is considered one of the most essential ingredients for prospicient term disposition of any severe textile . Rock salt domesin aqueous basin have been consideredideal materialin this regard , as thick salinity deposits are eff to be very resistive to groundwater incursion . However , PhD studentSoheil Ghanbarzadehof the University of Texas , Austin is first author of a paper published inScienceshowing it is n’t quite as repellent as has been believed .
Ghanbarzadeh examine oil and piquant H2O around 48 crude and gasolene wells in the Gulf of Mexico , which run through large common salt bodies . He found oil was getting to property it should n’t . The deep the well the more permeable salt became , letting vegetable oil escape . This was in credit line with long standing expectation by geologist and previous evidence that oil caninfiltrate salt deposition .
More surprising was that , even at quite shallow depths , fluids were sometimes making their way through salt anticipate to be impermeable .
joint author , and Ghanbarzadeh ’s supervisory program , Dr. Maša Prodanovićsaid ina statement : " What this raw info tell us is that the potential for permeableness is there and should be a condition when deciding where and how to store nuclear waste . "
Ghanbarzadeh andProdanović used X - ray microtomography on synthetical rock candy salt sample to discover that even tiny pocket of brine between salt crystal can link up up to form a connection that allows fluids to make their way through the salt .
Previous studies have point that air pressure applied during engineering work , for example the structure of a permissive waste facility or the drilling of oil wells , can deform salt so that pass open up . Ghanbarzadeh and Prodanović ’s piece of work indicates this contortion can happen naturally , making it far hard to control . The newspaper publisher notes that “ viscous stream of John Rock salt due to the density line with the surrounding sediment ” may explicate the changes , particularly where stresses are gamey and a humble amount of piquant water is present .
While nuclear waste is have a bun in the oven to be incase in durable materials before inhumation , this is not thought to be a lasting solution on its own . If ground weewee can pass through the barren site it may corrode metallic element casings , and there is a danger it will become contaminated with radioactive chemical element that then get carried into the wider environment .
Dr. Mark Hesse , another author on the report , added : " Further study is necessary to study the amount of flow that can occur . ” But Prodanović suggested that even existing waste matter disposal website should be re - evaluated .
