Permian Basin as a radioactive waste repository

The Permian Basin comprises portions of many structural basins in which halite was deposited close together aerially during the Permian Period of time. It contains at least five areas where salt beds within a formation cumulatively total greater than 200 feet, and are overlain by between 1,000 and 5,000 feet of strata: the Colorado-Kansas, Kansas, Oklahoma-Texas, Clovis and Carlsbad areas. A few other areas within the Permian Basin may contain salt beds collectively greater than 200 feet thick. The Carlsbad area contains a great thickness of salt and covers a very large area. For the Clovis and Oklahoma-Texas areas there is little data available for the Texas portions. The Kansas area has the only halite mines with rooms comparable to those of the proposed waste repository facility. There is little data available for the Colorado-Kansas area, especially for the Colorado portion. The Permian Basin major tectonic elements were formed before deposition of Permian salt beds, and only minor igneous activity and possible fault movement is along the periphery. The greatest seismic activity is associated with the Nemaha Ridge along the northeast side of the Permian Basin, and there is no proven movement, only a suggestion of movement in the form of lineaments to have caused earthquakes. All of the Permian Basin is in zone 1 of Coffman and Cloud (1970) where only distant earthquakes may cause damage to structures; therefore, ground rupture is not anticipated in the Permian Basin during the time that the radioactive waste is dangerous