Analyses of Natural Resources in 10 CFR Part 60 as Related to Inadvertent Human Intrusion

Miklas, Michael P.; Lefevre, Harold E.; ,

Analyses of Natural Resources in 10 CFR Part 60 as Related to Inadvertent Human Intrusion

by Michael P. Miklas, Cent for Nuclear Waste Regulatory, Analyses, San Antonio, United States,
Harold E. Lefevre, Cent for Nuclear Waste Regulatory, Analyses, San Antonio, United States,

Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: High Level Radioactive Waste Management 1993

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to examine the intent of the regulatory language of the portions of 10 CFR Part 60 which deal with considerations of the natural resources of a proposed geologic repository for high-level radioactive wastes as they relate to inadvertent human intrusion. Four Potentially Adverse Conditions (PAC) and the requirements of 10 CFR 60.21(c)(13) are shown to be related to natural resources. Groundwater is identified as a natural resource known to be present at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. For economic considerations of natural resources, the 'foreseeable future' is thought to be no more than 50 years. Two of the topics addressed by the PACs, subsurface mining and drilling at a proposed repository site, are pre-site-characterization activities which must be evaluated in the context of repository performance criteria set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard, 40 CFR Part 191. An alternative U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) compliance demonstration to another PAC, 10 CFR 60.122(c)(17), might be to use an 'explorationist perspective' of natural resource assessment. The Commission intends for DOE to evaluate the likelihood and consequence of inadvertent human intrusion into a geologic repository as a result of exploration or exploitation of natural resources within or near a proposed high-level radioactive waste geologic repository.

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