96. 



You may build up a concentration of radioactive mate- 

 rial in the gel and get a high heat. 



Does anybody have any ideas on what would happen by 

 throwing some bentonite in this material to help it gel? 



Bentonite loses its properties in acid solutions. 



Is there a geologist present who knows of a clay de- 

 posit ten feet thick, without bedding planes and fractures? 

 (No volunteers) 



In propane storage we can take a slight loss but here 

 we're talking about zero leakage. I don't trust any natural 

 material not to leak. 



Everyone seems to agree that for any processing that 

 you do which depends on plugging pores, the period of 

 testing would be so long that it ceases to be of interest. 



Consensus: "Without research, shale is not safe. 



3. Infiltration into shallow permeable beds. 



A. Beds below the water table. 



(1) Aquifers below the water table could be considered only 

 in isolated desert basin areas like those of Nevada, and 

 even here they have no advantages over deep aquifers. 

 In addition, they have more potential problems than the 

 deep strata, e.g.: (a) in closed basins the solutions 

 might rise to the surface and evaporate; (b) even in des- 

 ert areas, shallow aquifers are commonly used as water 

 supplies: (c) we don't know enough about the movement 

 of ground water in these basins. 



(2) Current experiments on adsorption indicate that about 20 

 tons of montmorillonite cla^ may be enough to adsorb 

 1,000 gallons of waste, mostly by base exchange. The 

 reaction, however, is reversible. 



(3) Conclusions. Disposal in shallow aquifers below the 

 water table is not recommended. It would be possible 



