As a geologist I seco d this, salt is more like a plaster than a rock and super good at sealing itself. You only gotta be lucky that no bigger tectonic stresses build up to huge cracks, as these can't be filled easily, but that is nothing that can't be monitores amd watched for. Ofc it is not 100% safe, see germanys attempt to bury nuclear waste, but it is a damn good option.
Why are the Reagan Reserves stored in salt mines? Is there a scientific reason for this? Instead of using well built warehouses?
4 months ago by Don_Dickle to c/askscience
count_of_monte_carlo 3 points 4 months ago
The US also tested burying nuclear waste in a salt mine with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), though with less success.
The salt worked well to contain the waste. The issue they wound up having was a barrel burst from pressure (Los Alamos National Laboratory incorrectly used organic kitty litter as an absorbent material). The radioactive contamination leaked slightly because the ventilation system failed to close fully when the radiation monitors triggered. Turns out the salt had deposited in the ventilation shaft and blocked the vents from closing.
iocase 1 point 4 months ago
It's also waaay cheaper to drill a couple holes, mine a void out with hot water, and then fill it with oil. Building a tank farm of similar capacity is extremely expensive. Hundreds of millions of barrels of oil is an enormous quantity that needs to be stored somewhere.
The total capacity of the US national reserve is roughly a cube of oil half a km long on each side. It's basically a decent sized lake of oil you have to store somewhere. Think of a lake or two near you and building the capacity to store that entire thing inside of steel walled cylindrical tanks.
Patnou 15 points 4 months ago
I gave up on google a long time ago. I use this to get real questions answered like why is a salt mine better than a warehouse? What in salt makes a mine more suitable? And other questions. I have been told to shorten stuff so I have been. Plus this is an engagement discourse site.
CmdrShepard49 9 points 4 months ago
Real questions like "why does Superman appear to breathe on Earth but not in space?"
😂
ItsLucky 4 points 4 months ago
Seriously? Idk if you sawbut this is literally the ask scientists community and you are shaming someone for asking a qurstion?????? Also general rule of thump most ppl know how to research on their own and most of the time do so before asking online, specially in online spaces. Plus the link you provided wanted to paywall me??? Idk I really hope that you can learm from this as this was not a good move.
SpikesOtherDog 4 points 4 months ago
Further off topic, but this week I have run into several forum posts featured for my search (I'm looking at you, Auto Hot Key) where the moderator responded with a snarky lmgtfy instead of answering the question. That means that I have wasted my time reading down a thread I found searching for a specific issue, and the first few answers I find are people saying to try searching for the answer instead of actually attempting to answer the question.
By the way, guess what ends up the top result when you follow the link?
blargh513 3 points 4 months ago
I hear that the act of reading things that are a little bit challenging can be good for cognitive development.
I mean, we could also ask strangers to chew our food for us because chewing things can be difficult.
Throbbing_banjo 1 point 4 months ago
Why are you like this?
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There are some articles out there explaining it better but it basically boils down to salt being an incredibly good seal. It basically seals itself off if small cracks form. That means oil doesn't leak away, and things don't get into the oil. It makes it relatively stable and lower risk than a tank which could easily get a hole or something.
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