Trace gas emissions on geological faults as indicators of underground nuclear testing

Carrigan, Charles R.; Heinle, R.; Hudson, G. B.; Nitao, John J.; Zucca, J.J.

doi:10.1038/382528a0

Cited by 170 publications

(106 citation statements)

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“…In a diffusively dominated transport environment, the 3 He should have arrived before the SF 6 based on atomic size. Carrigan et al (1996) suggests that the speed of transport along the fractures is much greater than the diffusion rate driven by deeper 'low' barometric pressure variations. They also suggest that the high diffusion coefficient of He compared to SF 6 actually impedes its transport along a fracture by allowing it to diffuse out of the main flow path more effectively than SF 6.…”

Section: How Do These Results Compare To Reservoir Scale Test Sites?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The research of Carrigan et al (1996) presented the transport of 3 He and SF 6 tracer gas flow along faults and fractures, following their release underground at a depth of 400 m, resulting from barometric pressure variations. These fractures may be considered as preferential pathways during transport.…”

Section: How Do These Results Compare To Reservoir Scale Test Sites?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experimental determination of noble gases and SF6, as tracers of CO2 flow through porous sandstone

et al. 2018

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A B S T R A C TIn order to label the CO 2 injected underground for geological storage and allow it to be differentiated from natural sources, a panoply of additive chemical tracers have been proposed. Yet, the transport of these tracers relative to CO 2 in pore space is currently poorly constrained. This leads to uncertainty as to whether tracers will act as an early warning of CO 2 arrival, or be preferentially retained in the pore space making them ineffective. Here, we present the factors affecting transport of noble gases and SF 6 relative to CO 2 in a porous rock. Using a porous sandstone core, each of the tracers were loaded into a sample loop and injected as discrete gas pulses into a CO 2 carrier stream at five different experiment pressures (10-50 kPag upstream to ambient pressure downstream). Tracer arrival profiles were measured using a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Significantly, our results show that peak arrival times of helium were slower than the other noble gases at each pressure gradient. The differences in peak arrival times between helium and other noble gases increased as the pressure gradient along the system decreased and the curve profiles for each noble gas differ significantly. The heavier noble gases (Kr and Xe) along with SF 6 show an earlier arrival time and a wider curve profile compared to He and Ne curves through the CO 2 carrier gas stream. This shows that Kr and Xe could be substituted for SF 6 , a potent greenhouse gas, in tracer applications. For comparison, CO 2 pulses were passed through a N 2 carrier gas resulting in significantly slower peak arrival times compared to those of noble gases and SF 6 . Hence, all investigated tracers when co-injected with CO 2 could potentially act as early warning tracers of CO 2 arrival, though we find that Kr, Xe and SF 6 will provide the most robust advance warning. Analysis of our experimental results shows that they cannot be explained by a simple one dimensional flow model through a porous medium. We outline a conceptual model that incorporates different preferential flow paths depending on flow velocities of individual gas streams. This model can explain the observed dataset and shows that the flow of noble gases and SF 6 tracers is influenced by pore-scale heterogeneity.

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Section: How Do These Results Compare To Reservoir Scale Test Sites?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: How Do These Results Compare To Reservoir Scale Test Sites?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental determination of noble gases and SF6, as tracers of CO2 flow through porous sandstone

et al. 2018

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“…We regard this study to be an analogue to CO 2 leakage from a subsurface storage site, and are using the NUFT code for our transport simulations. The SF 6 -3 He study was published in the journal Nature (Carrigan et al, 1996). As a context for modeling, we have chosen the geological and hydrologic setting of the Permian Basin, as exemplified particularly by the Mabee EOR field.…”

Section: Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Co2 Capture Project - An Integrated, Collaborative Technology Development Project for Next Generation Co2 Separation, Capture and Geologic Sequestration

Kerr¹

2003

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The CO 2 Capture Project (CCP) is a joint industry project, funded by eight energy companies (BP, ChevronTexaco, EnCana, Eni, Norsk Hydro, Shell, Statoil, and Suncor) and three government agencies (European Union {DG Res & DG Tren}, Norway {Klimatek} and the U.S.A. {Department of Energy. The project objective is to develop new technologies, which could reduce the cost of CO 2 capture and geologic storage by 50% for retrofit to existing plants and 75% for new-build plants. Technologies are to be developed to "proof of concept" stage by the end of 2003. The project budget is approximately $24 million over 3 years and the work program is divided into eight major activity areas:• Baseline Design and Cost Estimation -defined the uncontrolled emissions from each facility and estimate the cost of abatement in $/tonne CO 2 .• Capture Technology, Post Combustion: technologies, which can remove CO 2 from exhaust gases after combustion.• Capture Technology, Oxyfuel: where oxygen is separated from the air and then burned with hydrocarbons to produce an exhaust with high CO 2 for storage.• Capture Technology, Pre -Combustion: in which, natural gas and petroleum coke are converted to hydrogen and CO 2 in a reformer/gasifier.• Common Economic Model/Technology Screening : analysis and evaluation of each technology applied to the scenarios to provide meaningful and consistent comparison.• New Technology Cost Estimation: on a consistent basis with the baseline above, to demonstrate cost reductions.• Geologic Storage, Monitoring and Verification (SMV): providing assurance that CO 2 can be safely stored in geologic formations over the long term.• Non-Technical: project management, communication of results and a review of current policies and incentives governing CO 2 capture and storage.Technology development work dominated the past six months of the project. Numerous studies are making substantial progress towards their goals. Some technologies are emerging as preferred over others. Pre-combustion Decarbonization (hydrogen fuel) technologies are showing good progress and may be able to meet the CCP's aggressive cost reduction targets for new-build plants. Chemical looping to produce oxygen for oxyfuel combustion shows real promise. As expected, post-combustion technologies are emerging as higher cost options that may have niche roles. Storage, measurement, and verification studies are moving rapidly forward. Hyper-spectral geo-botanical measurements may be an inexpensive and non-intrusive method for long-term monitoring. Modeling studies suggest that primary leakage routes from CO 2 storage sites may be along wellbores in areas disturbed by earlier oil and gas operations. This is good news because old wells are usually mapped and can be repaired during the site preparation process.Many studies are nearing completion or have been completed. Their preliminary results are summarized in the attached report and presented in detail in the attached appendices.4 Technologies are to be developed to "proof of concept" stage by t...

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“…NUFT has also been used in field studies for research in vadose zone flow and transport processes (Lee and Nitao 2000;, as well as for evaluation of vadose zone contaminated sites (Demir et al 1999). Other field applications include nuclear waste disposal (Nitao and Buscheck 1995), nuclear treaty verification (Carrigan et al 1996), containment of gases during subcritical test explosions, and enhanced petroleum recovery (Sahni, Kumar, and Knapp 2000).…”

Section: Nuft Model Model Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Simulators for In Situ Remediation Evaluation, Design, and Operation

Dortch¹,

McGrath²,

Nitao³

et al. 2001

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Trace gas emissions on geological faults as indicators of underground nuclear testing

Cited by 170 publications

References 4 publications

Experimental determination of noble gases and SF6, as tracers of CO2 flow through porous sandstone

Experimental determination of noble gases and SF6, as tracers of CO2 flow through porous sandstone

Co2 Capture Project - An Integrated, Collaborative Technology Development Project for Next Generation Co2 Separation, Capture and Geologic Sequestration

Development of Simulators for In Situ Remediation Evaluation, Design, and Operation

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