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Total-System Performance Assessment for the Yucca Mountain Site

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2011

Michael L. Wilson ,
Peter N. Swift ,
Jerry A. McNeish  and
S. David Sevougian
Michael L. Wilson
Affiliation:
Total System Performance Assessment Department, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185-0778, U.S.A.
Peter N. Swift
Affiliation:
Total System Performance Assessment Department, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185-0778, U.S.A.
Jerry A. McNeish
Affiliation:
Duke Engineering and Services, Inc., 1180 Town Center Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89144, U.S.A.
S. David Sevougian
Affiliation:
Duke Engineering and Services, Inc., 1180 Town Center Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89144, U.S.A.
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Abstract

Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is under consideration as a potential site for a repository for high-level radioactive waste. Total-system performance-assessment simulations are performed to evaluate the safety of the site. Features, events, and processes have been systematically evaluated to determine which ones are significant to the safety assessment. Computer models of the disposal system have been developed within a probabilistic framework, including both engineered and natural components. Selected results are presented for three different total-system simulations, and the behavior of the disposal system is discussed. The results show that risk is dominated by igneous activity at early times, because the robust waste-package design prevents significant nominal (non-disruptive) releases for tens of thousands of years or longer. The uncertainty in the nominal performance is dominated by uncertainties related to waste-package corrosion at early times and by uncertainties in the natural system, most significantly infiltration, at late times.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 713: Symposium JJ – Scientific Basis for Nuclear Waste Management XXV , 2002 , JJ4.1
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2002

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References

REFERENCES

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