OCRWM'S Evolving Strategic Planning Process and the 1990 Plan
In 1990, the Secretary of Energy (Secretary Watkins) ordered that all 23 of the Department's major organizations adopt systems of strategic planning. This paper explains the...
Looking Out for the Ratepayer
The national high level nuclear waste management program has reached a crisis. The Department of Energy is ready to proceed with underground testing, but they are prevented from doing...
Yucca Mountain Near Field Environment Considerations for Engineered Barrier System Design and Performance
Waste emplacement environment will be essentially dry for at least 300 years and will likely continue to be dry for more than 1000 years, both as a result of the unsaturated ambient conditions...
Modelling of Excavation, Thermal Loading and Bentonite Swelling Pressure for a Waste Repository
For the performance assessment of a future nuclear waste repository, the excavation of the tunnel and deposition hole, thermal loading from waste heat release and the swelling pressure...
Apparent and Simple Diffusion Coefficients in Compacted Bentonite
Diffusion coefficients were experimentally determined in bentonite to evaluate the effectiveness of bentonite layers as a diffusion barrier to ionic transport away from high-level radioactive...
An Analysis of Buffering in Bentonite-Groundwater Systems
Chemical buffering by bentonite can potentially simplify assessments of the performance of engineered barriers to radionuclide migration by decoupling near-field and far-field geochemical...
Effect of Ionizing Radiation on the Waste Package Environment
The radiolytic production of nitrogen oxides, nitrogen acids and ammonia are discussed in relation to the expected environment in a high-level waste repository that may be constructed...
Estimating Geochemical Behavior of Cocnretes to be Placed at Yucca Mountain
The interactions of J-13 water with cementitious materials were examined at 25?C using the geochemical code EQ3NR/EQ6. Results of the modeling suggested the following conclusions: (1)...
Isotopic Discontinuities in Ground Water Beneath Yucca Mountain, Nevada
Analytical data for stable isotopes in ground water from beneath Yucca Mountain, when examined in map view, show areal patterns of heterogeneity that can be interpreted in terms of mixing...
Distribution of Rubidium, Strontium, and Zirconium in Tuff From Two Deep Coreholes at Yucca Mountain, Nevada
Variations in concentrations of trace elements Rb, Sr, and Zr within the sequence of high-silica tuff and dacitic lava beneath Yucca Mountain reflect both primary composition and secondary...
Strontium Isotopes in Carbonate Deposits at Crater Flat, Nevada
Strontium isotope studies of carbonates from soils, veins, eolian dust and Paleozoic basement sampled near Crater Flat, southwest of Yucca Mountain, provide evidence for the origins of...
An Evaluation of Evidence Pertaining to the Origin of Vein Deposits Exposed in Trench 14, Nevada Test Site, Nevada
Large vein-like deposits of calcite and opaline silica that infill the Bow Ridge fault are exposed by Trench 14 at the Nevada Test Site. The origin of the deposits has been the center...
General Circulation Models: Applications for Nuclear Waste Repositories
Numerical models have long been used to relate causal and response functions in the natural environment. Some 20 years ago, one-dimensional, multi-causal models of earth temperature evolved,...
Archaeological Program for the Yucca Mountain Site
Archaeological surveys, limited surface collections and selected test excavations in the Yucca Mountain Project Area have revealed four distinct aboriginal hunting and gathering adaptive...
Management and Research of Desert Tortoises for the Yucca Mountain Project
A program has been developed for the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) to manage and study the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizi), a threatened species that occurs at low densities at Yucca...
Assessing Impacts on Biological Resources from Site Characterization Activities of the Yucca Mountain Project
An integrated impact assessment program was developed to monitor the possible effects of Site Characterization Activities (SCA) on the biological resources of the Yucca Mountain area....
The Reclamation Program for the Yucca Mountain Project
The U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) is required by law and other regulatory requirements to reclaim disturbances created by site characterization activities at Yucca Mountain. Because...
Preliminary Assessment of the Impact of Conceptual Model Uncertainty on Site Performance
Performance assessment modeling for high-level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal incorporates three different types of uncertainty. These include data and parameter uncertainty, modeling...
Scenario Evolution: Interaction Between Event Tree Construction and Numerical Analyses
Construction of well-posed scenarios for the range of conditions possible at any proposed repository site is a critical first step to assessing total system performance. Event tree construction...
A Formalism to Generate Probability Distributions for Performance-Assessment Modeling
A formalism is presented for generating probability distributions of parameters used in performance-assessment modeling. The formalism is used when data are either sparse or nonexistent....
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