76. 



MONDAY MORNING SESSION 

 September 12, 1955 



The meeting convened at 9:15 o'clock, Dr. Hess presiding. 



CHAIRMAN HESS: This will probably be our final session of 

 this conference. We will hear the reports of the work done and con- 

 clusions reached yesterday by the two committees. At the end of the 

 reports we will have a general discussion, and then adjourn. 



The first report will be by Dr. Hubbert. 



Dr. M. King Hubbert 



Chief Consultant, General Geology 



Shell Oil Company 



Box 2099 



Houston 1, Texas 



DR. HUBBERT: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: The committee 

 to look into the possibility of deep waste disposal in permeable rocks 

 met yesterday afternoon and reviewed the problem. We decided on two 

 premises for our discussions: one, that the disposal should be safe; 

 and, two, that we would formulate basic principles governing disposal 

 during what we hope will be orderly and rational development of the 

 industry in the future. 



In order to obtain a clearer idea of the magnitude of the waste- 

 disposal problem, the following calculation was made: 



Suppose that beginning in I960, nuclear power were produced at 

 a rate equal to the present entire power output of the United States, 

 and the waste products diluted to the extent of 50 gallons of water per 

 gram of fission products, were injected underground into a sandstone 

 100 feet thick, having 20 percent porosity, what would be the area of 

 the sand that would be filled with waste products by the year 2000? At 

 the meeting an approximate calculation was made, and the following 

 are the slightly revised results: The present power output of the United 

 States is about 4.8 x 10 11 kw-hr/yr (10 8 kw at a load factor of 0.54). 

 The quantity of U-235 required would be 84 metric tons per year, and 

 the diluted wastes would amount to 100 million (42-gal) barrels per 

 year. By the year 2000 the area occupied by the wastes would be 40 



