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Water Signatures and Their Thermal Stability in Bedded Salt for Nuclear Waste Storage: An Incoherent Inelastic Neutron Spectroscopy Study

Ding, Mei ; Watkins, Erik ; Hartl, Monika LU and Daemen, Luc (2015) In Environmental Science & Technology Letters 2(11). p.308-313
Abstract
The forms of water and their thermal stability in bedded salt are crucial in determining the material's suitability for heat-generating nuclear waste storage. Here we show first-of-its-kind incoherent inelastic neutron scattering (IINS) results of bedded salts to distinguish three water environments: intergranular water molecules confined to grain boundaries, water trapped as brine in fluid inclusions, and structural water in intracrystalline hydrous minerals. Sixteen spectral lines can be distinguished unambiguously in the 0-1100 cm(-1) multiphonon and librational domain, yielding an unprecedented high resolution for a natural material. The spectral response to temperature illustrates the bimodality of the technique enabling the... (More)
The forms of water and their thermal stability in bedded salt are crucial in determining the material's suitability for heat-generating nuclear waste storage. Here we show first-of-its-kind incoherent inelastic neutron scattering (IINS) results of bedded salts to distinguish three water environments: intergranular water molecules confined to grain boundaries, water trapped as brine in fluid inclusions, and structural water in intracrystalline hydrous minerals. Sixteen spectral lines can be distinguished unambiguously in the 0-1100 cm(-1) multiphonon and librational domain, yielding an unprecedented high resolution for a natural material. The spectral response to temperature illustrates the bimodality of the technique enabling the intergranular water component to be distinguished from that of brine, shedding light on a nearly 30-year-old problem in characterizing different forms of water in rock salt. This pioneering study shows that IINS provides insight into the cause and effect of moisture migration and its coupling to thermomechanical properties in salt formations. Our results are pertinent to subsurface energy exploration and storage, including nuclear waste storage, in salts. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Environmental Science & Technology Letters
volume
2
issue
11
pages
308 - 313
publisher
The American Chemical Society (ACS)
external identifiers
  • wos:000364622800003
  • scopus:84969174595
ISSN
2328-8930
DOI
10.1021/acs.estlett.5b00186
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
941461fa-9a8f-48b7-958f-ff2e798e8438 (old id 8380489)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 13:02:24
date last changed
2022-04-13 22:56:34
@article{941461fa-9a8f-48b7-958f-ff2e798e8438,
  abstract     = {{The forms of water and their thermal stability in bedded salt are crucial in determining the material's suitability for heat-generating nuclear waste storage. Here we show first-of-its-kind incoherent inelastic neutron scattering (IINS) results of bedded salts to distinguish three water environments: intergranular water molecules confined to grain boundaries, water trapped as brine in fluid inclusions, and structural water in intracrystalline hydrous minerals. Sixteen spectral lines can be distinguished unambiguously in the 0-1100 cm(-1) multiphonon and librational domain, yielding an unprecedented high resolution for a natural material. The spectral response to temperature illustrates the bimodality of the technique enabling the intergranular water component to be distinguished from that of brine, shedding light on a nearly 30-year-old problem in characterizing different forms of water in rock salt. This pioneering study shows that IINS provides insight into the cause and effect of moisture migration and its coupling to thermomechanical properties in salt formations. Our results are pertinent to subsurface energy exploration and storage, including nuclear waste storage, in salts.}},
  author       = {{Ding, Mei and Watkins, Erik and Hartl, Monika and Daemen, Luc}},
  issn         = {{2328-8930}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{11}},
  pages        = {{308--313}},
  publisher    = {{The American Chemical Society (ACS)}},
  series       = {{Environmental Science & Technology Letters}},
  title        = {{Water Signatures and Their Thermal Stability in Bedded Salt for Nuclear Waste Storage: An Incoherent Inelastic Neutron Spectroscopy Study}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.5b00186}},
  doi          = {{10.1021/acs.estlett.5b00186}},
  volume       = {{2}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}