# Presentation: 682876

## The SECUREarth Initiative:  A Town Hall Meeting        

- Bo Bodvarsson*Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory**November 9, 2004**Presented at:  **GSA, Denver, CO*

**The SECUREarth Initiative:  ****A Town Hall Meeting        **

## Objective of Town Hall Meeting

**Inform the Geoscience community about the SECUREarth Initiative and generate broad support.**
**Solicit input on key roadblocks, research needs, and approaches.**

**2**

## Background and Motivation: Shrinking Resources for an Expanding Population

**Energy and environmental needs are accelerating at a pace much faster than current research can satisfy. **
**Increasing domestic and international energy demand**
**Environmental remediation and resource utilization**
**Current Geoscience Research mode and scope will not  meet societies needs in the next 20–25 years - ****How do we “harvest” current research and integrate results.**
**Alternative energy will not meet immediate needs**
**Mitigation of greenhouse gases**
**Water quality and supply**
**Recent advances in supporting science can be used to accelerate fundamental  knowledge to make significant advances. **
**NSF and DOE user facilities**
**Materials and microbiology advances**
**Computing**
**Characterization and Monitoring **

**3**

## SECUREarth

**New initiative for the geosciences addressing ****S****cientific ****E****nvironmental/Energy ****C****ross-Cutting ****U****nderground ****R****esearch in the Earth or SECUREarth.**
**SECUREarth’s goal is to build a focused research activity to integrate and augment existing research programs and facilities at universities, labs and industry to overcome key environmental and energy roadblocks in a timely fashion.**
**Will focus on the subsurface coupled processes (physical, chemical, microbial)  affecting  flow and transport of fluids.**

**4**

## Solving Cross-Cutting PROBLEMS in GeoScience

**Environmental**

**Water**

**Solving Cross-Cutting PROBLEMS ****in GeoScience**

**5**

## Cross-Cutting CHALLENGES 

**Cross-Cutting CHALLENGES **

**Flow Delineation**

**Geochemical Engineering**

**BioEngineering**

**6**

## Research APPROACH

- Laboratory

-  Modeling

- Field Research Centers

**Research APPROACH**

**7**

## History of SECUREarth

**Developed by INEEL, LBNL, Oak Ridge, PNNL, and several universities (everyone is welcome).**
**Multidisciplinary – Multi-institutional Advisory Panel formed in early 2004.**
**NRC workshop in July 2004.**
**Monthly teleconference on SECUREarth held first Thursday of every month at 10:30 a.m. (Pacific)*****(http://www-esd.lbl.gov/SECUREarth)***

**8**

## Meeting of Opportunity on the                               Initiative

- Pat Dehmer
- Margaret Chu
- Edith Allison
- Mike Wright
- Pat Leahy
- Rien van Genuchten
- James Woolford

**Meeting of Opportunity on the                               Initiative**

- Margaret Leinen
- Caroline Purdy
- Jeffrey Marqusee
- Noel Scrivner
- Barry Katz, Fellow
- Richard Coates
- Mark Gilbertson

- Bo BodvarssonEarth Sciences Division Director, LBNLRuss HertzogSubsurface Science Initiative Director, INEEL
- Fred Hoffman
- Vice President, International and Deepwater Exploration
- Franklin W. SchwartzOhio Eminent Scholar in Hydrogeology, The Ohio State University
- Frederick ColwellResearcher, INEELErnest Majer, LBNL

**Overview of the**
**SECUREarth Initiative**

**It Was Not a Lack of Stones That Ended the Stone Age**

**Organizing for Innovation In Geoscience Research**

**Elements of Successful Geoscience Research**

**Feedback from Various Agencies**

**NRC/DOE Introduction**

- George Hornberger and Pat Dehmer
- Office of Science

**9**

## Key Results of NRC Workshop

**The two main themes that emerged were, ****“****Diverse problems have similar solutions****”**** and ****“****isolate or produce****”****.**
**DOE OS  was supportive and will sponsor a “decadal study” by NRC/NAS. **
**The other speakers all addressed the questions and were supportive of the research goals.  All identified crosscutting problems including:**
** ****Heterogeneity**
**Scaling**
**Imaging**
**Coupled processes  **
**Need to articulate new and compelling science.**
**Need to focus science on the solution of a problem.**

**10**

## Lack of Predictive Capability: Examples 

**Lack of Predictive Capability: Examples **

**Nuclear waste disposal – meet 100,000 year standard?**
**Oil and gas – why only 30 - 40 % ****maximum recovery?**
**CO****2****  Sequestration - can it be safely stored long term?**
**New and enhanced geothermal systems - ten  fold?**
**Environmental Remediation - Cost effective and safe?**
**Water supply and quality – Meet all future needs?**

**11**

## TOUGH2 Simulations for the Frio Brine Pilot for CO2 Sequestration

**Simulation of CO****2**** injection behavior between two wells only 100 feet apart.**
**Geometry constrained by many well logs, surface seismic and other geophysics**
**50 years of experience in the area**
**Tracer tests, interference tests**
**High permeability, uniform unconsolidated sand formation.**
**Numerous model runs over a year prior to, and after picking the monitor well site.**
**Input from geochemists, geologists, and reservoir engineers.**

**12**

## 13

**13**

## 14

**14**

## 15

**15**

## Conclusions of CO2 Experiment

**Mismatch could not be explained by not  having the proper geometry. **
**Lack of knowledge in proper fluid-rock  interactions  was the main gap.**
**Specific CO****2****/brine capillary pressure relations at the field scale**
**Knowledge of the effect of  heterogeneity in a multiphase system (preferential flow paths)**
**Proper mass balance (only one monitor well and lack of volume information)**
**Sacrifices in experimental design had to be made due to the lack of understanding (guesses) in the hierarchy of process to monitor.**

**16**

## Scientific Thrusts

**Develop fundamental understanding of crosscutting, complex, coupled processes that will permit imaging and manipulation of the subsurface  for improved resource management.**

- Process Prediction

- Scaling

-       Ecosphere
-      Manipulation

**Multi-disciplinary**
**Cross-cutting**
**User Focused**
**Science Driven**
**Integrated Across ****Theory and Practice**

***Build on Current Research, Not Replace***

**Scientific Thrusts**

**Sustainable resource development (water, fossil fuels, CO****2**** Sequestration, Geothermal)**
**Environmental remediation**
**Safe nuclear waste disposal**

**17**

## What Do We Need To Do Now?

**Identify well defined, crosscutting research areas that have major impact.**
**Package initiative goals so that they are readily understood and explained by policy makers.**
**Define focused-project/program elements and their interrelationships.**
**High-level champions.**

***Need buy in and support by entire ******Geosciences community! ***

**18**

##      Field Study Sites:

***     ******Field Study Sites:***
***DOE NABIR Field Research Centers***
***DOE Yucca Mountain Repository***
***NSF CUAHSI Observatories***
***DOE ARM Research Stations***
***USDA Remote Sensing Sites***
***NSF Deep Underground Sci. & Eng. Labs***
***CO2 Frio Formation Geo-Seq Site***
***USGS NAQUA and NRP Sites***
***DOD Serdp NETTS***
***RMOTC***

***   ******Facilities***
***DOE Synchrotrons***
***EMSL***
***G:TL***
***BES Nanoscale Science facilities***

***     ******Synthesis***
***National Laboratories***
***Universities***
***JGI***
***NSF CUAHSI Synthesis***
***Water Agencies***
***Industry***

***    ******Training & Outreach****** ***
***DOE Stars! Program***
***NSF Education and Outreach***
***Universities***
***EPA Star Program***
***USGS Learning Web***

***Computation & ***
***Visualization***
***DOE Advanced Scientific Computing***
***Private Industry***
***Petroleum Industry***
***NASA***

*Developing a research framework necessary to meet *
*National **energy supply and environmental quality requirements of the 21**st** Century.  *

**Existing, Complementary Components:**

**19**

## Future of SECUREarth

**Host series of town hall meetings in 2004 and early 2005. (GSA, AGU, etc.)**
**Small workshop involving Advisory Group scheduled at AGU (December 12, 2004).**
**Focused workshop to set out specific scientific plan and implementation approach in spring of 2005.**
**NAS/NRC study to commence on a fast track in 2004/2005.**
**Final call for proposals to follow.**
**Monthly teleconference on SECUREarth held first Thursday of every month at 10:30 a.m. (Pacific).****(http://www-esd.lbl.gov/SECUREarth)**

**20**

## Discussion Questions

**What are the the key roadblocks in successfully applying geoscience research to solve energy and environmental problems?**
**How do you see your research fitting in?**
**What new approaches are needed in carrying out the science?**

**21**

## BACKUP SLIDES

## Hanford Uranium Plume

**Hanford Uranium Plume**

- Large volume ( over 15 M Kg) of radioactive mixed waste placed in  ponds: 1943 to 1975
- Vadose zone environment with gravels, sands, silts and clays, hydrologic gradient ( 0.5 to 10 m/day towards one of worlds largest river reaches less than 1 km away (up to 250,000 cfs).
-  Remediation started in 1990( pump and treat) based on numerous well data and modeling
- Remediation stopped in 1995 based on “dramatic reduction in U concentrations near trenches

## Remediation Results to 1995

**Remediation Results to 1995**

## Rebound After Remediation Stopped

**Rebound After Remediation Stopped**

## Critical Unknown and Lack of Data

**Critical Unknown and Lack of Data**

- Amount of uranium remaining in the vadose zone.
- Mobility of residual vadose zone uranium under likely future conditions.
- Characteristics of uranium in the vadose zone.
- Characteristics of uranium in the aquifer.
- Discharge of uranium into the river system.
- Potential consequences of uranium in the river ecosystem.
- Erroneous sorption parameter estimates
- Non-equilibrium geochemical processes (e.g., slow desorption)
- Desorption/dissolution from capillary fringe sediments
- Effects of contact time and water composition.

## Implementation of SECURE Earth

**Implementation of SECURE Earth**