Economic and Technical Advantages of High-Temperature Processes in High-Level Radioactive Waste Management
The estimated waste management costs incurred for the three principal waste forms produced by reprocessing spent fuel are compared from a theoretical economic standpoint. The cost of vitrifying...
Behaviour of Plutonium, Rare Earth Elements and Elements of the Platinum Group in Vitreous Phosphate Composites During Liquid HLW Vitrification
The methods of ?-spectrometry, ?-scanning, ?-radiography, optical microscopy, x-ray phase and x-ray fluorescent analyses were used to study the behaviour of Pu, La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Ru, Rh,...
Geophysical Borehole Logging in the Unsaturated Zone, Yucca Mountain, Nevada
Borehole geophysical logging for site characterization in the volcanic rocks at the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, requires data collection under rather unusual...
Analysis of Solute Transport in an Intermediate-Scale Unsaturated Flow Experiment
A simplified stochastic model was derived and applied to two unsaturated flow experiments conducted in an intermediate-scale caisson. Parameters for the flow and transport models were...
Key Scientific Issues for Near-Field Performance Assessment
This paper reviews key scientific issues related to the performance assessment of engineered barrier systems. In contrast to the inherent uncertainties associated with inhomogeneous geologic...
Process and Criteria for Valuation of the Ground-Water Flow Models in the OECD/NEA International Stripa Project
In 1986, the Site Characterization and Validation (SCV) Program was initiated as part of Phase III of the OECD/NEA International Stripa Project. The principal intent of the SCV Program...
Demonstration of a Repository Performance Assessment Capability at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
In order to better review licensing submittals for a High-Level Waste Repository, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has expanded and improved its capability to conduct performance...
Variation of Permeability with Temperature in Fractured Topopah Spring Tuff Samples
Fractures will play an important role in the near-field hydrology of a nuclear-waste package in a mined repository. Our previous studies showed that the water permeability of fractured...
An Alternative Method to Mariotte Reservoir System for Maintaining Constant Hydraulic Pressure
Several problems with the Mariotte reservoir system were discovered when it was used to apply a constant water pressure as a boundary condition for a prolonged period. The constant-pressure...
Pore-Water Extraction from Unsaturated Tuffs Using One-Dimensional Compression
To support the study of the unsaturated-zone hydrochemistry at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, a one-dimensional compression system was developed and tested to extract unaltered and uncontaminated...
Performance Assessment Calculational Exercises (PACE-90): Overview and Summary
PACE-90 was undertaken by the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project in order to develop expertise in computational capabilities and to aid in identification of critical elements...
Scoping Experimental Analysis of Factors Affecting Cask Contamination Weeping
One issue of particular concern to both the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the US Department of Energy (DOE) involves the control of in-transit 'weeping'...
Location and Assessment of Groundwater Discharge
Methods have been developed for locating and measuring groundwater discharges, which are often obscured by the presence of overlying surface water. A sediment probe, towed behind a moving...
An Empirical Data Base for the Investigation of Earthquake-Related Changes in Crustal Hydrology
Both fracture permeability and fluid flow velocity can alter as a result of sudden strain changes associated with earthquake fault rupture. Testing the hydrological signatures of numerous...
The Shaft Excavation Effect Experiment
The Shaft Excavation Effect (SEE) experiment has been carried out by Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (PNC). Corresponding to this experiment, an evaluation system...
Two Double Porosity Models for Groundwater Radioactive Contamination
This paper describes two models for groundwater radioactive contamination in a naturally fractured rock. The first one for a saturated rock and the other one for an unsaturated rock. Numerical...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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