Assessment of Natural Resources in Repository Siting

Wright, Robert J.; ,

Assessment of Natural Resources in Repository Siting

by Robert J. Wright,

Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: High Level Radioactive Waste Management 1990

Abstract:

One way to discourage people from intruding into a repository for high-level radioactive waste is to locate it at a place that is not valuable for mineral resources. Thus, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in its 10 CFR 60, requires that a license application contains a resource assessment of the proposed repository site. The value of resources at the site is to be compared with the average of resource values in areas of similar size that are within, and representative of, the geologic setting; if the resource value at the site is greater, a potentially adverse condition exists. In this approach, the group of comparison areas can be viewed as a small-scale simulation of the geologic setting, and a site with greater resource value than the average for the comparison areas can be viewed as above average in resource value with respect to the geologic setting.

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