Evaluation of subsurface transport processes of delayed gas signatures applicable to underground nuclear explosions.

ABSTRACT: Radioactive gas signatures from underground nuclear explosions (UNEs) result from gas-migration processes occurring in the subsurface. The processes considered in this study either drive or retard upward migration of gases from the detonation cavity. The relative importance of these processes is evaluated by simulating subsurface transport in a dual-permeability medium for the multi-tracer Noble Gas Migration Experiment (NGME) originally intended to study some aspects of transport from a UNE. For this experiment, relevant driving processes include weak two-phase convection driven by the geothermal gradient, over pressuring of the detonation cavity, and barometric pumping while gas sorption, dissolution, radioactive decay, and usually diffusion represent retarding processes. From determinis

SUBMITTER: Carrigan CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9343667 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature