This list of readings focuses on the current state of the U.S. economic relationship with Japan. A general, introductory section is followed by citations discussing specific Japanese business practices and trade policies which have an impact on the relationship. The bibliography also describes trade trends in specific sectors (including commentaries on the semiconductor agreement) and concludes with a section on policy options.

Two groups -- the President's Task Force on U.S. International Broadcasting (December 1991) and the Commission on Broadcasting to the People's Republic of China (September 1992) -- have both recommended that the United States increase broadcasting to China and other Communist countries in Asia, although the panels split on significant points for implementing their recommendations

This report contains a list of readings focuses on the current state of the U.S. economic relationship with Japan. A general, introductory section is followed by citations discussing specific Japanese business practices and trade policies which have an impact on the relationship. The bibliography also describes trade trends in specific sectors (including commentaries on the semiconductor agreement) and concludes with a section on policy options.

The remand of the US Environmental Protection Agency`s long-term performance standards for radioactive-waste disposal provides an opportunity to suggest modifications that would make the regulation more defensible and remove inconsistencies yet retain the basic structure of the original rule. Proposed modifications are in three specific areas: release and dose limits, probabilistic containment requirements, and transuranic-waste disposal criteria. Examination of the modifications includes discussion of the alternatives, demonstration of methods of development and implementation, comparison of the characteristics, attributes, and deficiencies of possible options within each area, and analysis of the implications for performance assessments. An additional consideration is the impact on the entire regulation when developing or modifying the individual components of the radiological standards.

In order to better review licensing submittals for a High-Level Waste Repository, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has expanded and improved its capability to conduct performance assessments. This report documents an initial demonstration of this capability. The demonstration made use of the limited data from Yucca Mountain, Nevada to investigate a small set of scenario classes. Models of release and transport of radionuclides from a repository via the groundwater and direct release pathways provided preliminary estimates of releases to the accessible environment for a 10,000 year simulation time. Latin hypercube sampling of input parameters was used to express results as distributions and to investigate model sensitivities. This methodology demonstration should not be interpreted as an estimate of performance of the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. By expanding and developing the NRC staff capability to conduct such analyses, NRC would be better able to conduct an independent technical review of the US Department of Energy (DOE) licensing submittals for a high-level waste (HLW) repository. These activities were divided initially into Phase 1 and Phase 2 activities. Additional phases may follow as part of a program of iterative performance assessment at the NRC. The NRC staff conducted Phase 1 activities …

In accordance with the requirements of section 113(b)(3) of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) and 10 CFR 60.18(g), the US Department of Energy (DOE) has prepared this report on the progress of site characterization activities at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for the period October 1, 1991, through March 31, 1992. This report is the sixth in a series of reports that are issued at intervals of approximately six months during site characterization. Also included in this report are activities such as public outreach and international programs that are not officially part of site characterization. Information on these activities is provided in order to fully integrate all aspects of the Yucca Mountain studies.

Tunnel damage resulting from seismic loading is an important issue for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The tunnel dynamics experiment was designed to obtain and document ground motions, permanent displacements, observable changes in fracture patterns, and visible damage at ground motion levels of interest to the Yucca Mountain Project. Even though the maximum free-field loading on this tunnel was 28 g, the damage observed was minor. Fielding details, data obtained, and supporting documentation are reported.

The purpose of this study is to provide some basic guidance regarding the criticality safety implications associated with long term burial of highly enriched nuclear fuel in a geologic repository. Generic calculations to determine the distance required to neutronically isolate neighboring fissile regions are reported. Two specific fuels are also addressed, Fort Saint Vrain and Shippingport PWR Core-2 Seed-2 (PWR). These fuels are addressed under both dry and flooded conditions. Fort Saint Vrain fuel contains a uranium-graphite fuel matrix, is graphite moderated and has a relatively low {sup 235}U loading ({approximately}1 kg per element). PWR contains a uranium-zirconium fuel matrix, is water moderated, zircaloy clad and has a {sup 235}U loading of {approximately}15 kg per cluster. These two fuels are representative of many of the fuels currently stored at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant (ICPP). The spent fuel storage system under consideration involves filling cylindrical canisters with spent nuclear fuel. These canisters are then to be placed into a geologic repository. Salt and tuff are the two most likely materials in which the canisters will be buried. Canisters will require sufficient material between them to ensure that the overall reactivity stays within acceptable limits. Fuels will also have to be …

A field heater experimental plan is presented for investigating hydrologic transport processes in unsaturated fractured rock related to the disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in an underground repository. The experimental plan provides a methodology for obtaining data required for evaluating conceptual and computer models related to HLW isolation in an environment where significant heat energy is produced. Coupled-process models are currently limited by the lack of validation data appropriate for field scales that incorporate relevant transport processes. Presented in this document is a discussion of previous nonisothermal experiments. Processes expected to dominate heat-driven liquid, vapor, gas, and solute flow during the experiment are explained, and the conceptual model for nonisothermal flow and transport in unsaturated, fractured rock is described. Of particular concern is the ability to confirm the hypothesized conceptual model specifically, the establishment of higher water saturation zones within the host rock around the heat source, and the establishment of countercurrent flow conditions within the host rock near the heat source. Field experimental plans are presented using the Apache Leap Tuff Site to illustrate the implementation of the proposed methodology. Both small-scale preliminary experiments and a long-term experiment are described.

For phenomena characterized by accurate and largely complete data, quantitative risk assessment (QRA) provides extraordinarily valuable and objective information. However, with phenomena for which the data, models, or probabilities are incomplete or uncertain, QRA may be less useful and more questionable, because its conclusions are typically empirically and theoretically underdetermined. In the face of empirical or theoretical underdetermination, scientists often are forced to make a number of methodological value judgments and inferences about how to estimate and evaluate the associated risks. The purpose of this project is to evaluate instances of methodological value judgments and invalid or imprecise inferences that have occurred in the QRA done for the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste facility. We shall show (1) that questionable methodological value judgments and inferences have occurred in some Yucca Mountain QRA`S; (2) that questionable judgments and inferences, similar to those in the Yucca Mountain studies, have occurred in previous QRA`s done for other radiation-related facilities and have likely caused earlier QRA`s to err in specific ways; and (3) that, because the value judgments and problems associated with some Yucca Mountain QRA`s include repetitions of similar difficulties in earlier studies, therefore the QRA conclusions of some Yucca Mountain analyses …

Sequential indicator simulation (SIS) is a geostatistical technique designed to aid in the characterization of uncertainty about the structure or behavior of natural systems. This report discusses a simulation experiment designed to study the quality of uncertainty bounds generated using SIS. The results indicate that, while SIS may produce reasonable uncertainty bounds in many situations, factors like the number and location of available sample data, the quality of variogram models produced by the user, and the characteristics of the geologic region to be modeled, can all have substantial effects on the accuracy and precision of estimated confidence limits. It is recommended that users of SIS conduct validation studies for the technique on their particular regions of interest before accepting the output uncertainty bounds.

Social impacts of a nuclear waste repository are described. Various case studies are cited such as Rocky Flats Plant, the Feed Materials Production Center, and Love Canal. The social impacts of toxic contamination, mitigating environmental stigma and loss of trust are also discussed.

Cortest Columbus Technologies, Inc. (CC Technologies) investigated the long-term performance of container materials used for high-level waste package as part of the information needed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to assess the Department of Energy`s application to construct to geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste. At the direction of the NRC, the program focused on the Tuff Repository. This report summarizes the results of Stress-Corrosion-Cracking (SCC) studies performed in Tasks 3, 5, and 7 of the program. Two test techniques were used; U-bend exposures and Slow-Strain-Rate (SSR) tests. The testing was performed on two copper-base alloys (Alloy CDA 102 and Alloy CDA 175) and two Fe-Cr-Ni alloys (Alloy 304L and Alloy 825) in simulated J-13 groundwater and other simulated solutions for the Tuff Repository. These solutions were designed to simulate the effects of concentration and irradiation on the groundwater composition. All SCC testing on the Fe-Cr-Ni Alloys was performed on solution-annealed specimens and thus issues such as the effect of sensitization on SCC were not addressed.

This report describes an assessment of the long-term performance of a repository system that contains deeply buried highly radioactive waste; the system is assumed to be located at the potential site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The study includes an identification of features, events, and processes that might affect the potential repository, a construction of scenarios based on this identification, a selection of models describing these scenarios (including abstraction of appropriate models from detailed models), a selection of probability distributions for the parameters in the models, a stochastic calculation of radionuclide releases for the scenarios, and a derivation of complementary cumulative distribution functions (CCDFs) for the releases. Releases and CCDFs are calculated for four categories of scenarios: aqueous flow (modeling primarily the existing conditions at the site, with allowances for climate change), gaseous flow, basaltic igneous activity, and human intrusion. The study shows that models of complex processes can be abstracted into more simplified representations that preserve the understanding of the processes and produce results consistent with those of more complex models.

This 1992 Addendum to the ``Environmental Monitoring Plan Nevada Test Site and Support Facilities -- 1991,`` Report No. DOE/NV/1 0630-28 (EMP) applies to the US Department of Energy`s (DOE`s) operations on the Continental US (including Amchitka Island, Alaska) that are under the purview of the DOE Nevada Field Office (DOE/NV). The primary purpose of these operations is the conduct of the nuclear weapons testing program for the DOE and the Department of Defense. Since 1951, these tests have been conducted principally at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), which is located approximately 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. In accordance with DOE Order 5400.1, this 1992 Addendum to the EMP brings together, in one document, updated information and/or new sections to the description of the environmental activities conducted at the NTS by user organizations, operations support contractors, and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) originally published in the EMP. The EPA conducts both the offsite environmental monitoring program around the NTS and post-operational monitoring efforts at non-NTS test locations used between 1961 and 1973 in other parts of the continental US All of these monitoring activities are conducted under the auspices of the DOE/NV, which has the stated policy of …

This preliminary preclosure radiological safety analysis assesses the scenarios, probabilities, and potential radiological consequences associated with postulated accidents in the underground facility of the potential Yucca Mountain repository. The analysis follows a probabilistic-risk-assessment approach. Twenty-one event trees resulting in 129 accident scenarios are developed. Most of the scenarios have estimated annual probabilities ranging from 10{sup {minus}11}/yr to 10{sup {minus}5}/yr. The study identifies 33 scenarios that could result in offsite doses over 50 mrem and that have annual probabilities greater than 10{sup {minus}9}/yr. The largest offsite dose is calculated to be 220 mrem, which is less than the 500 mrem value used to define items important to safety in 10 CFR 60. The study does not address an estimate of uncertainties, therefore conclusions or decisions made as a result of this report should be made with caution.

This document contains information about the environmental applications of aerial surveys. It discusses the accuracy, dependability, history, advantages, and sensitivity of aerial surveys. Also included, are a brief overview of in-situ gamma spectroscopy and samples of aerial surveys. This document contains entirely of an outline and viewfoils for the presentation.

None

Tunnel damage resulting from seismic loading is an important issue for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The tunnel dynamics experiment was designed to obtain and document ground motions, permanent displacements, observable changes in fracture patterns, and visible damage at ground motion levels of interest to the Yucca Mountain Project. Even though the maximum free-field loading on this tunnel was 28 g, the damage observed was minor. Fielding details, data obtained, and supporting documentation are reported.

This report summarizes the work performed in developing a permeable form of silicon nitride for application to ceramic crossflow filters for use in advanced coal-fired electric power plants. The program was sponsored by the Department of Energy Morgantown Energy Technology Center and consisted of a design analysis and material development phase and a filter manufacture and demonstration phase. The crossflow filter design and operating requirements were defined. A filter design meeting the requirements was developed and thermal and stress analyses were performed. Material development efforts focused initially on reaction-bonded silicon nitride material. This approach was not successful, and the materials effort was refocused on the development of a permeable form of sintered silicon nitride (SSN). This effort was successful. The SSN material was used for the second phase of the program, filter manufacture and evaluation. Four half-scale SAN filter modules were fabricated. Three of the modules were qualified for filter performance tests. Tests were performed on two of the three qualified modules in the High-Temperature, High-Pressure facility at the Westinghouse Science and Technology Center. The first module failed on test when it expanded into the clamping device, causing dust leakage through the filter. The second module performed well for a …

The purpose of this document is to describe the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project (YMP) and establish an approved YMP baseline against which overall YMP progress and management effectiveness shall be measured. For the sake of brevity, this document will be referred to as the Project Plan throughout this document. This Project Plan only addresses activities up to the submittal of the repository license application (LA) to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). A new Project Plan will be submitted to establish the technical, cost, and schedule baselines for the final design and construction phase of development extending through the start of repository operations, assuming that the site is determined to be suitable.

The Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project is studying Yucca Mountain in southwestern Nevada as a potential site for a high-level nuclear waste repository. Site characterization includes surface-based and underground testing. Analyses have been performed to design site characterization activities with minimal impact on the ability of the site to isolate waste, and on tests performed as part of the characterization process. One activity of site characterization is the construction of an Exploratory Studies Facility, consisting of underground shafts, drifts, and ramps, and the accompanying surface pad facility and roads. The information in this report addresses the following topics: (1) a discussion of the potential effects of surface construction water on repository-performance, and on surface and underground experiments; (2) one-dimensional numerical calculations predicting the maximum allowable amount of water that may infiltrate the surface of the mountain without affecting repository performance; and (3) two-dimensional numerical calculations of the movement of that amount of surface water and how the water may affect repository performance and experiments. The results contained herein should be used with other site data and scientific/engineering judgement in determining controls on water usage at Yucca Mountain. This document contains information that has been used in preparing Appendix I of …

In this thesis a parametric study of the thermal and hydrologic characteristics of the fractured porous tuffs at Yucca Mountain, Nevada was conducted. The effects of different fracture and matrix properties including permeability, thermal conductivity, specific heat, porosity, and tortuosity on heat pipe performance in the vicinity of the waste package were observed. Computer simulations were carried out using TOUGH code on a Cray YMP-2 supercomputer. None of the fracture parameters affected the heat pipe performance except the mobility of the liquid in the fracture. Matrix permeability and thermal conductivity were found to have significant effect on the heat pipe performance. The effect of mass injection was studied for liquid water and air injected at the fracture boundary. A high rate of mass injection was required to produce any effect on the heat pipe. The fracture-matrix equilibrium is influenced by the matrix permeability and the matrix thermal conductivity.

This quarterly report covers activities of the Two-Stage, Close-Coupled Catalytic Liquefaction of Coal Program during the period of July 1--September 30, 1992, at Hydrocarbon Research, Inc., in Lawrenceville and Princeton, New Jersey. This DOE contract period is from October 1, 1998 to December 31, 1992. The overall purpose of the program is to achieve higher yields of better quality transportation and turbine fuels and to lower the capital and production costs in order to make the products from direct coal liquefaction competitive with other fossil fuel products. The quarterly report covers work on Laboratory testing, Bench Scale Studies and PDU Activities focusing on scale-up of the Catalytic Two-Stage Liquefaction (CTSL) processing of sub-bituminous Black Thunder Coal.