EARTHSAWtm IN-SITU CONTAINMENT OF PITS AND TRENCHES [report]

P.E. Ernest E. Carter
2002 unpublished
EarthSaw™ is a proposed technology for construction of uniform high quality barriers under and around pits and trenches containing buried radioactive waste without excavating or disturbing the waste. The method works by digging a deep vertical trench around the perimeter of a site, filling that trench with high specific gravity grout sealant, and then cutting a horizontal bottom pathway at the base of the trench with a simple cable saw mechanism. The severed block of earth becomes buoyant in
more » ... grout and floats on a thick layer of grout, which then cures into an impermeable barrier. The "Interim Report on task 1 and 2" which is incorporated into this report as appendix A, provided theoretical derivations, field validation of formulas, a detailed quantitative engineering description of the technique, engineering drawings of the hardware, and a computer model of how the process would perform in a wide variety of soil conditions common to DOE waste burial sites. The accomplishments of task 1 and 2 are also summarized herein Task 3 work product provides a comprehensive field test plan in Appendix B and a health and safety plan in Appendix C and proposal for a field-scale demonstration of the EarthSaw barrier technology. The final report on the subcontracted stress analysis is provided in Appendix D. A copy of the unified computer model is provided as individual non-functional images of each sheet of the spreadsheet and separately as a Microsoft Excel 2000 file.
doi:10.2172/810727 fatcat:7g75hz2yrvhs7i4zmdu5rqt7re