scholarly journals Review and critique of the US Department of Energy environmental program plan for site characterization for a high-level waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada

1992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Site Characterization ◽  
Yucca Mountain ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
High Level Waste ◽  
Environmental Program ◽  
The Us ◽  
Program Plan ◽  
Waste Repository ◽  
High Level

Mineralogy-Petrology and Groundwater Geochemistry of Yucca Mountain Tuffs

1983 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Bish ◽  
Allen E. Ogard ◽  
David T. Vaniman
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Glass ◽  
Lateral Position ◽  
Yucca Mountain ◽  
Department Of Energy ◽  
Transport Pathways ◽  
Southern Nevada ◽  
The Us ◽  
Mineral Assemblages ◽  
Variable Character ◽  
High Level

Research at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada (Fig. 1), is being supported by the US Department of Energy to evaluate this site as a possible high-level radioactive waste repository. Yucca Mountain is underlain by a thick sequence of ash-flow and bedded tuffs, with a few silicic lavas.Variations in mode of tuff emplacement and postemplacement alterations have given rise to pyroclastic rocks of quite variable character, ranging from nonwelded to densely welded, vitric to devitrified, and nonzeolitized to completely zeolitized. The proposed repository horizon is in the lower portion of the thick, densely welded Topopah Spring Member of the Paintbrush Tuff in the unsaturated zone. Within the Topopah Spring Member and in the rocks beneath the proposed repository horizon, there are significant variations in mineralogy [1]. Such changes in mineralogy include the localized occurrence of such potentially reactive phases as cristobalite,tridymite, smectite, and volcanic glass. The important sorptive minerals clinoptilolite and mordenite also occur in discrete horizons, and their distribution changes horizontally and vertically. We have undertaken a study of the mineralogy in Yucca Mountain as a function of depth and lateral position to predict the horizontal and vertical distribution of these important potentially reactive and sorptive minerals. This knowledge has aided in locating the repository horizon and will help to put bounds on mineralogic variability within the repository horizon. In addition, studies of the distribution of minerals in Yucca Mountain allow us to deduce the factors that have controlled mineral distributions and to predict mineral assemblages along transport pathways [1,2]. In addition, we are investigating the groundwater chemistry because it and mineralogy are used as input to codes for calculating the transport rate of waste elements from the repository to the accessible environment.

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.

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