COMPUTATIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT TOOLS TO ADDRESS STAKEHOLDER QUESTIONS FOR GEOLOGIC CARBON STORAGE: PERSPECTIVE FROM THE U.S. DOE’S NATIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT PARTNERSHIP

Commercial-scale deployment of geologic carbon storage (GCS) requires stakeholders to have confidence that GCS sites will safely and effectively store large volumes of CO2 away from the atmosphere. The National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP), a multi-year, multi-national laboratory collaborative research project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy’s Carbon Storage Program, has developed computational tools and recommended practices for quantitative assessment and management of subsurface environmental risks from commercial-scale deployment of GCS. The NRAP computational toolset is designed to support stakeholder decision-making related to evaluating long-term containment effectiveness, assessing risk of unwanted CO2 and brine migration, quantifying state-of-stress and managing potential induced seismicity risks, and designing effective and efficient monitoring networks to detect potential leakage. Now in it’s third phase of research, NRAP is developing approaches to incorporate cost of remedial action and long-term liability and extending site-scale risk assessment to quantify risks and inform management decisions for deployment of many commercial-scale operations across a geologic basin. This presentation will introduce the audience to the NRAP risk quantification capability and highlight GCS stakeholder-relevant applications.