Geologic feasibility of selected chalk-bearing sequences within the conterminous United States with regard to siting of radioactive-waste repositories

The siting record: An account of the programs of federal agencies and events that have led to the selection of a potential site for a geologic respository for high-level radioactive waste

“…A review of thick chalk formations in the United States included the extensive Cretaceous Selma Chalk found along the Gulf Coast Plain fiom s o u t h d Alabama to northeast Mississippi; the mid-continent Niobrara Formation in eastemNebraska, central and western Kansas, and eastern Colorado; the Austin Chalk of eastcentral to northeast Texas; and other, less-developed Cretaceous and Tertiary chalks (Gonzales, 1975(Gonzales, ,1977).…”

“…' 'cs as a waste disposal medium was found to be (1) low permeability and thus a general resistance to the penelration of water (2) reasonably thick and widespread (3) occurrence in regions of very low seismicity and generally with slight structural deformation (4) extremely line-grained, which produces a measure of self-sealing plastic behavior, and (5) the absence of water within subsurface excavations as documented by a liquid petroleum gas cavern facility in south-central Alabama (Gonzales, 1975).…”

“…Talc and serpentinite metamorphic deposits in the eastern United States, which are confined principally to the Appalachian Mountain region extending fiom Vermont to Alabama, were examined as part of an O W investigation (Wenner and Gonzales, 1975). Major deposits of talc associated with serpentinite and other ultramaflc rocks, occur as discontinuous lenses tens of kilometers long and a few kilometers wide throughout the region.…”