The Role of Electrical Resistance Tomography
In the U.S. Nuclear Waste Site Characterization Program

W. Daily and A. Ramirez

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550

Abstract - Several tests are being conducted in the densely welded Topopah Springs tuff within Yucca Mountain, Nevada to study the thermomechanical and thermo-hydrological behavior of this horizon and its suitability as a storage unit of the high level nuclear waste for the USA. One of the methods used to monitor the hydraulic response of the rockmass is electrical resistance tomography (ERT). We will describe one of these tests, the drift scale test, to describe and illustrate the role that ERT has played during that work.