Clark Scott

GEOPHYSICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCES AT THE POWELL STAGE STATION

Within the boundaries of the Idaho National Laboratory, an ongoing archaeological investigation of a late 19th century stage station was expanded with the use of Electro-Magnetic and Magnetic geophysical surveying. The station known as the Powell Stage Station was a primary transportation hub on the Snake River Plain, bridging the gap between railroad supply depots in Blackfoot, Idaho and booming mining camps throughout Central Idaho. Initial investigations have shown a strong magnetic signature from a buried road and previously unknown features that were not detected by visual surface surveys. Data gained from this project aids in federally directed cultural resource and land management and use requirements and has contributed additional information for archeological interpretation and cultural resource preservation.

Seismic Characterization of Basalt Topography at Two Candidate Sites for the INL Remote-Handled Low-Level Waste Disposal Project

This report presents the seismic refraction results from the depth to bed rock surveys for two areas being considered for the Remote-Handled Low-Level Waste (RH-LLW) disposal facility at the Idaho National Laboratory. The first area (Site 5) surveyed is located southwest of the Advanced Test Reactor Complex and the second (Site 34) is located west of Lincoln Boulevard near the southwest corner of the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC). At Site 5, large area and smaller-scale detailed surveys were performed. At Site 34, a large area survey was performed. The purpose of the surveys was to define the topography of the interface between the surficial alluvium and underlying basalt. Seismic data were first collected and processed using seismic refraction tomographic inversion. Three-dimensional images for both sites were rendered from the data to image the depth and velocities of the subsurface layers. Based on the interpreted top of basalt data at Site 5, a more detailed survey was conducted to refine depth to basalt. This report briefly covers relevant issues in the collection, processing and inversion of the seismic refraction data and in the imaging process. Included are the parameters for inversion and result rendering and visualization such as the inclusion of physical features. Results from the processing effort presented in this report include fence diagrams of the earth model, for the large area surveys and iso-velocity surfaces and cross sections from the detailed survey.

Utility Locating in the DOE Environment

Some advances have been made in utility locating in recent years and standards have been recently published to try and categorize the level of information known about the utilities in the subsurface. What current standards lack is characterization about the level of effort or technology in the geophysicist approach to utility locating. A simple generalization of geophysical technology/product, designed to fit within current standards, is advanced for the purpose of discussion. This generalization uses three levels or tiers to distinguish the geophysical product and its inherent information content. Due to nuclear legacy issues, the Department of Energy (DOE) environment poses some added difficulties and this generalization is used to describe the technical approach, with examples, that is being developed at the Idaho National Laboratory.