The U.S. Department of Energy relies on Earth Volumetric Studio for some of the nation’s most critical infrastructure and environmental challenges, from managing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s underground storage caverns to characterizing uranium contamination at former nuclear facilities. Sandia National Laboratories uses Studio’s 3D geostatistical modeling to assess structural integrity, quantify contaminated volumes, and support defensible remediation decisions.
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In the Field
Bayou Choctaw Strategic Petroleum Reserve
The Bayou Choctaw salt dome in southern Louisiana serves as one of the U.S. Department of Energy's principal underground storage facilities for crude oil as part of the Nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The intrusive salt core has risen many tens of thousands of feet, penetrating various sand-shale sedimentary layers to reach its current spatial position. Crude oil is stored in large caverns — approximately 300 feet in diameter and 2,000 feet high — leached into the salt mass using solution mining.*Interactive 3D model of the Bayou Choctaw salt dome and storage caverns — explore the relationship between the salt core, sedimentary layers, and solution-mined caverns.*
3D model of the Bayou Choctaw salt dome showing the spatial relationship between storage caverns and the surrounding geology.
Salt cavern typical of solution mining structures created for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Dimensional data assesses total volume and structural integrity — the surface is colored according to out-of-round condition.
Nuclear Facility Uranium Contamination
Soils adjacent to a former nuclear facility were contaminated by uranium emissions during operation. The emissions appear to have been concentrated adjacent to building walls by rain-runoff from the roofs of the facility buildings. These contaminated zones were explored using angled borings to measure beneath the building foundations. A three-dimensional geostatistical simulation of 100 equiprobable realizations of this deep uranium was imported into Earth Volumetric Studio to distinguish the contaminated and total volumes of soils associated with the building walls and footers.
3D geostatistical simulation of uranium contamination beneath a former nuclear facility — 100 equiprobable realizations used to distinguish contaminated soil volumes associated with building walls and footers.
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