Analogues to features and processes of a high-level radioactive waste repository proposed for Yucca Mountain, Nevada

Professional Paper 1779
Prepared in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy under Interagency Agreement DE-AI28-07RW12405
By: , and 

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Abstract

Natural analogues are defined for this report as naturally occurring or anthropogenic systems in which processes similar to those expected to occur in a nuclear waste repository are thought to have taken place over time periods of decades to millennia and on spatial scales as much as tens of kilometers. Analogues provide an important temporal and spatial dimension that cannot be tested by laboratory or field-scale experiments. Analogues provide one of the multiple lines of evidence intended to increase confidence in the safe geologic disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Although the work in this report was completed specifically for Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the proposed geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste under the U.S. Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the applicability of the science, analyses, and interpretations is not limited to a specific site. Natural and anthropogenic analogues have provided and can continue to provide value in understanding features and processes of importance across a wide variety of topics in addressing the challenges of geologic isolation of radioactive waste and also as a contribution to scientific investigations unrelated to waste disposal. Isolation of radioactive waste at a mined geologic repository would be through a combination of natural features and engineered barriers. In this report we examine analogues to many of the various components of the Yucca Mountain system, including the preservation of materials in unsaturated environments, flow of water through unsaturated volcanic tuff, seepage into repository drifts, repository drift stability, stability and alteration of waste forms and components of the engineered barrier system, and transport of radionuclides through unsaturated and saturated rock zones.
Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Analogues to features and processes of a high-level radioactive waste repository proposed for Yucca Mountain, Nevada
Series title Professional Paper
Series number 1779
DOI 10.3133/pp1779
Edition -
Year Published 2010
Language ENGLISH
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Contributing office(s) Yucca Mountain Project Branch
Description xiii, 194 p.
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
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