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Browsing by Subject "deuterium"

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    Item type:Presentation, Access status: Open Access ,
    Identifying the origin of water appearances in salt mines using isotope-aided methodologies: new insights through combined analyses of water leakages and atmospheric water vapor
    Pierchala, Anna; Duliński, Marek ; Gorczyca, Zbigniew; Różański, Kazimierz; Staszczak, Waclaw
    Wydział Fizyki i Informatyki Stosowanej
    Uncontrolled water appearances in salt mines pose the largest hazard to their safe operation. Two major categories of water appearances in Polish salt mines were identified: (i) syngenetic brines associated with formation of salt deposits, and (ii) meteoric waters of infiltration origin [1]. Whereas the first category of waters is generally considered safe because they are fully saturated brines and usually occur in limited quantities, meteoric waters of infiltration origin pose serious danger to mines’ operation and need to be controlled. Isotope analyses of water appearances in Polish salt mines started in the early 1970s [1]. Although it soon became clear that ²H and ¹⁸O isotope contents in mine waters constitute a powerful tool for identification of their origin, there are still some problems with unambiguous classification of those waters, resulting mainly from their unknown interaction with mines’ atmosphere. We report here the results of a dedicated study focused on quantification of spatio-temporal variability of δ²H and δ¹⁸O in atmospheric moisture present in the Klodawa Salt Mine, the largest salt mine in Poland (production of ca. 6x10⁵ tons of salts annually). Autonomous units allowing collection of monthly composite samples of mines’ atmosphere have been installed at 7 representative localities inside the mine and operated for the period of 14 months. The units were also measuring temperature and relative humidity. The ²H and ¹⁸O isotope composition of water vapour in the collected air samples was measured in the laboratory using Picarro 2140-i CRDS analyzer. References: [1] Dulinski, M., Rozanski, K., Brudnik, K., Kolonko, P., Tadych, J., 2013. Isotope monitoring of water appearances in salt mines: The Polish experience. In. Natural Analogues for Safety Cases of Repositories in Rock Salt. Nuclear Energy Agency Report, NEA/RWM/R(2013)10, OECD, 123-131.