Demonstration of Safety for Geologic Disposal

1993 ◽  
Vol 333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward C. Taylor ◽  
Lawrence D. Ramspott ◽  
William M. Sprecher
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Yucca Mountain ◽  
Technological Advance ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Nuclear Waste Management ◽  
Geologic Repository ◽  
Geologic Disposal ◽  
High Level ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTThe U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) is developing a nuclear waste management system that will accept high-level radioactive waste, transport it, store it, and ultimately emplace it in a deep geologic repository. The key activity now is determining whether Yucca Mountain, Nevada is suitable as a site for the repository. If so, the crucial technological advance will be the demonstration that disposal of nuclear waste will be safe for thousands of years after closure. This paper assesses the impact of regulatory developments, legal developments, and scientific developments on such a demonstration.

NNWSI Performance Assessment Considerations

1983 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. D. Tyler ◽  
R. R. Peters ◽  
N. K. Hayden ◽  
J. K. Johnstone ◽  
S. Sinnock
Keyword(s):  
Performance Assessment ◽  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Yucca Mountain ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Nuclear Waste Repository ◽  
Nuclear Waste Storage ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Assessment Task ◽  
Waste Storage ◽  
A Site

ABSTRACTThe Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) project includes a Performance Assessment task to evaluate the containment and isolation potential for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada. This task includes calculations of the rates and concentrations at which radionuclides might be released and transported from the repository and will predict their consequences if they enter the human environment. Among the major tasks required for these calculations will be the development of models for water flow and nuclide transport under unsaturated conditions and in fractured hard rock. The program must also quantify the uncertainties associated with the results of the calculations. The performance assessment will provide evaluations needed for making major decisions as the U. S. Department of Energy seeks a site for a repository. An evaluation will be part of the environmental assessments prepared to accompany the potential nomination of the site. If the Yucca mountain site is selected for characterization and development as a repository, the assessments will be required for an environmental impact statement, a safety analysis report, and other documents.This program has been divided into five tasks. Collectively they will provide the performance assessments needed for the NNWSI Project.

Comparison of CFD Calculations With Experimental Results for the YMP Scaled Natural Convection Tests

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Dalvit Dunn ◽  
Stephen W. Webb ◽  
John Del Mar ◽  
Michael T. Itamura ◽  
Nicholas D. Francis
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Pilot Scale ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Geologic Repository ◽  
Specific Data ◽  
Concrete Pipe ◽  
High Level Nuclear Waste ◽  
High Level ◽  
And Control ◽  
Calculated Model

The Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) is currently designing a geologic repository for high level nuclear waste. The design encompasses two distinct phases, the pre-closure period where temperatures within the repository will be controlled by active ventilation, and the post-closure period where the repository will be sealed. A prerequisite for designing the repository is the ability to both understand and control the heat generated from the decay of the nuclear waste. This decay heat affects the performance of both the waste packages and the emplacement drift. The ability to accurately model the complex heat transfer within the repository is critical to the understanding of the repository performance. Currently, computational fluid dynamics codes are being used to model the post-closure performance of the repository. Prior to using the codes on the project they were required to be thoroughly validated. Eight pilot-scale tests were performed at the Department of Energy North Las Vegas Atlas Facility to evaluate the processes that govern thermal transport in an environment that scales to the proposed repository environment during the post closure period. The tests were conducted at two geometric scales (25 and 44% of full scale), with and without drip shields, and under both uniform and distributed heat loads. The tests provided YMP specific data for model validation. A separate CFD model was developed for each of the four test configurations. The models included the major components of the experiment, including the waste packages (heated steel canisters), invert floor, and emplacement drift (insulated concrete pipe). The calculated model temperatures of the surfaces and fluids, and velocities, are compared with experimental data.

Safe and Compliant Nuclear Waste Management: What Does It Really Mean?

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murthy Devarakonda ◽  
Jennifer Biedscheid
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
Yucca Mountain ◽  
Nuclear Waste Management ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
The Government ◽  
High Level ◽  
Technical Basis

Nuclear waste management is a complex and contentious issue in all parts of the world, involving social, political, technical, and economic interests, and generating a reaction of public suspicion and mistrust in most cases. Not surprisingly, the end goal for all parties involved in the nuclear waste management debate is identical: the safe disposition of the waste in compliance with governing regulations. The governing regulations, in turn, are intended primarily to protect public health and the environment, not just in the present, but well into the future, given the long-lived nature of many radionuclides in the waste. However, each party in the nuclear waste management debate approaches and defines the end goal differently. The balancing of interests and ideas pursued by the government, regulators, scientific community, local watchdog groups, and the general public regarding the end goal affect the way that policies are determined and by whom. The strength of the various arguments and the environment in which they are asserted also plays a role in policy development. The resolution of a nuclear waste management issue in any given case can never be described unequivocally as the “best,” “safest,” or “optimal” solution simply because the various parties and entities involved will very rarely look at the end point from the same perspective (technical, emotional, or political). However, nuclear waste management programs can be designed and developed so that the disparity of expectations and emotions is minimized by means of open communications and a sound technical basis for all decisions. This paper discusses examples of these concepts in the context of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and Yucca Mountain Programs. These programs, which address the permanent disposition of transuranic (TRU) waste and high-level radioactive waste (HLW), respectively, provide the opportunity to view policy decisions and associated impacts both within the framework of resulting operational realities in the case of the WIPP Program and within the process of defining a strategy for the progress of the Yucca Mountain Program.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the US DOE's conceptual model of hydrothermal activity at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 3853-3905
Author(s):  
Y. V. Dublyansky
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Hydrothermal Activity ◽  
Yucca Mountain ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Natural Analog ◽  
Disposal Facility ◽  
The Us ◽  
High Level Nuclear Waste ◽  
High Level

Abstract. A unique conceptual model envisaging conductive heating of rocks in the thick unsaturated zone of Yucca Mountain, Nevada by a silicic pluton emplaced several kilometers away is accepted by the US Department of Energy (DOE) as an explanation of the elevated depositional temperatures measured in fluid inclusions in secondary fluorite and calcite. Acceptance of this model allowed the DOE not to consider hydrothermal activity in the performance assessment of the proposed high-level nuclear waste disposal facility. Evaluation shows that validation of the model by computational modeling and by observations at a natural analog site was unsuccessful. Due to the lack of validation, the reliance on this model must be discontinued and the scientific defensibility of decisions which rely on this model must be re-evaluated.

scholarly journals A Demonstration of Dose Modeling at Yucca Mountain

1992 ◽  
Vol 294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terri B. Miley ◽  
Paul W. Eslinger
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Yucca Mountain ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Geologic Repository ◽  
Hanford Site ◽  
Regulatory Guidance ◽  
Dose Limits ◽  
High Level Nuclear Waste ◽  
High Level

ABSTRACTThe U. S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently revising the regulatory guidance for high-level nuclear waste disposal. In its draft form, the guidelines contain dose limits. Since this is likely to be the case in the final regulations, it is essential that the U.S. Department of Energy be prepared to calculate site-specific doses for any potential repository location. This year, Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) has made a first attempt to estimate doses for the potential geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada as part of a preliminary total-systems performance assessment.A set of transport scenarios was defined to assess the cumulative release of radionuclides over 10,000 years under undisturbed and disturbed conditions at Yucca Mountain. Dose estimates were provided for several of the transport scenarios modeled. The exposure scenarios used to estimate dose in this total-systems exercise should not, however, be considered a definitive set of scenarios for determining the risk of the potential repository.Exposure scenarios were defined for waterborne and surface contamination that result from both undisturbed and disturbed performance of the potential repository. The exposure scenarios used for this analysis were designed for the Hanford Site in Washington. The undisturbed performance scenarios for which exposures were modeled are gas-phase release of 14C to the surface and natural breakdown of the waste containers with waterborne release. The disturbed performance scenario for which doses were estimated is exploratory drilling. Both surface and waterborne contamination were considered for the drilling intrusion scenario.

High-Level Nuclear Waste Management: How Physics Can Help

1997 ◽  
Vol 506 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Salvatores ◽  
A. Zaetita
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Nuclear Waste ◽  
Fuel Cycle ◽  
Nuclear Waste Management ◽  
Reactor Physics ◽  
Basic Physics ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
High Level Nuclear Waste ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTThe potential value of Partitioning/Transmutation (P/T) strategies for high-level nuclear waste management has been investigated (one would be tempted so say “periodically”) since 1970. The basic physics phenomena are well understood, and scenarios for the fuel cycle can be imagined. However, the criteria to judge the impact of P/T are matter for discussion (and controversy). Moreover the relation to disciplines other than reactor physics can be significant (e.g. innovative fuels and Actinide chemistry).A number of key issues are revisited here and will be discussed in some detail.

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