Designing a Deep Hole in Crystalline Rock
- Key words
- Drilling; well cost; crystalline rock; large diameter; exploration
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 2012
- Session
- Deep drilling; Economics; HDR/EGS
- Language
- English
Abstract
Sandia National Laboratories recently completed development of a reference design and operational procedures for disposal of high-level radioactive waste in deep boreholes (Arnold, et al. 2011). Although the holes serve a completely different purpose, their design shares many characteristics—large diameter, substantial depth, crystalline rock in the crucial interval—with designs for deep Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) wells. This paper outlines the design process for the disposal holes and gives a rudimentary cost analysis that shows how drilling cost varies with hole design. We intend and hope that this description will invite comments and generate discussion of similar designs for EGS applications.
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