Reposted by _jeanleon
"solution is quite embarrassing for humans in hindsight" what else will be like this?
_jeanleon
@jean-leon.bsky.social
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friendly curious introvert with too many interests aka _jeanleon on X | twitter i block liberally, no hard feelings
!["The SPR caverns that were built by DOE were designed to be geomechanically stable for up to five full drawdowns. Repeated partial drawdowns followed by refill can leach a single part of a cavern repeatedly, leading to undesirable shapes. After Congress directed DOE to begin conducting regular non-emergency mandated sales from the SPR starting in 2017 to help manage the federal budget, DOE tasked Sandia to provide a yearly update on the number of drawdowns each cavern had remaining since the caverns were being used regularly to withdraw crude oil. In May 2025, Sandia reported that the majority of the SPR’s caverns (47 of 60—about 78 percent) had at least four remaining available drawdowns as of the end of calendar year 2024, and all but one cavern had at least one remaining available drawdown.[28]
In its assessment of the impact of the 2022 drawdown, Sandia found that it impacted the SPR’s caverns in the expected way (e.g., expended drawdowns and cavern volume increase) and left the majority of the caverns in very good condition. Further, Sandia experts told us that the large-scale 2022 drawdown improved the shape of some caverns (e.g., by removing some salt bridges) that had only experienced partial drawdowns before then. However, every drawdown cycle expands cavern volume and reduces the spacing between caverns within the salt dome, which ultimately reduces their long-term viability.
Some SPR caverns have potential issues that Sandia has identified and is actively monitoring. Most notably, at Bayou Choctaw, three of the six caverns have only one expected remaining drawdown available and two may have developed a pathway between them that could limit their safe use. DOE told us it is currently working on potential chemical and engineering solutions to move oil in and out of these caverns safely. In addition, the other three caverns with five expected drawdowns available may be negatively impacted by the... " https://files.gao.gov/reports/GAO-26-106918/index.html](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4be4yuhnaj3z74hq6dobrfwi/bafkreicnrnhurtluuf5uv26btibzp7jtfbupmihbmklw22dvwarzfmehtu)
