Problems in determination of the water content of rock-salt samples and its significance in nuclear-waste storage siting

The in situ water content of rock salt in beds or domes and the exact nature of its occurrence are of considerable importance for the safe design and operation of nuclear-waste storage facilities in salt deposits. Most published determinations of the ''water content'' of salt are not comparable. Many determinations contain serious, and in part systematic, errors. The multiplicity of water sources in salt samples, the methods of sample selection and preparation, and the analytical methods used are such that some of these results may be low by as much as an order of magnitude. There is no panacea, but most of the sources of error can be minimized