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.

We present a preliminary measurement of R{sub b}, the ratio of {Gamma}(Z{degree} - b{bar b}) relative to {Gamma}(Z{degree} {yields} hadrons) using the silicon CCD-pixel vertex detector of the SLD at the SLAC Linear Collider (SLC). An impact parameter method and a displaced vertex method are applied to all charged tracks, to efficiently tag Z{degree} - b{bar b} events. From the impact (displaced vertex) approach we find R{sub b} = 0.214 {plus_minus} 0.010 {plus_minus} 0.025 (R{sub b} = 0.204 {plus_minus} 0.010 {plus_minus} 0.030), consistent with the standard model value.

Lithologic variation, regional depositional trends, and the lack of written guidelines have resulted in inconsistencies in the recognition of stratigraphic contacts in drill holes at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). Stratigraphic identification, based on mineralogy of discrete samples, can be augmented by geophysical logs and downhole movies to more accurately and consistently locate contacts between units. Criteria are established for locating the base of the Pahute Mesa ash-flow tuff, the top of the Ammonia Tanks ash-flow tuff, the top of the Ammonia Tanks bedded tuff, and the top and the base of the Rainier Mesa Tuff.

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 …

We report the results of preliminary studies of a 2 to 4 nm SASE FEL, using a photoinjector to produce the electron beam, and the SLAC linac to accelerate it to an energy up to 10 GeV. Longitudinal bunch compression is used to increases ten fold the peak current to 2.5 kA, while reducing the bunch length to the subpicosecond range. The saturated output power is in the multi-gigawatt range, producing about 10{sup 14} coherent photons within a bandwidth of about 0.2% rms, in a pulse of several millijoules. At 120Hz repetition rate the average power is about 1 W. The system is optimized for x-ray microscopy in the water window around 2 to 4 nm, and will permit imaging a biological sample in a single subpicosecond pulse.

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.

An attempt is made at illustrating the many contributions to rock mechanics from US defense programs, over the past 30-plus years. Large advances have been achieved in the technology-base area covering instrumentation, material properties, physical modeling, constitutive relations and numerical simulations. In the applications field, much progress has been made in understanding and being able to predict rock mass behavior related to underground explosions, cratering, projectile penetration, and defense nuclear waste storage. All these activities stand on their own merit as benefits to national security. But their impact is even broader, because they have found widespread applications in the non-defense sector; to name a few: the prediction of the response of underground structures to major earthquakes, the physics of the earth`s interior at great depths, instrumentation for monitoring mine blasting, thermo-mechanical instrumentation useful for civilian nuclear waste repositories, dynamic properties of earthquake faults, and transient large-strain numerical modeling of geological processes, such as diapirism. There is not pretense that this summary is exhaustive. It is meant to highlight success stories representative of DOE and DOD geotechnical activities, and to point to remaining challenges.

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.

Various commercial software packages and customized programs provide the ability to analyze and visualize the geology of Yucca Mountain. Starting with sparse, irregularly spaced data a series of gridded models has been developed representing the thermal/mechanical units within the mountain. Using computer aided design (CAD) software and scientific visualization software, the units can be manipulated, analyzed, and graphically displayed. The outputs are typically gridded terrain models, along with files of three-dimensional coordinates, distances, and other dimensional values. Contour maps, profiles, and shaded surfaces are the output for visualization.

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.

Yucca Mountain, the potential site of a repository for high-level radioactive waste, is situated in a region of natural and man-made seismicity. Underground openings excavated at this site must be designed for worker safety in the seismic environment anticipated for the preclosure period. This includes accesses developed for site characterization regardless of the ultimate outcome of the repository siting process. Experience with both civil and mining structures has shown that underground openings are much more resistant to seismic effects than surface structures, and that even severe dynamic strains can usually be accommodated with proper design. This paper discusses the design and performance of lined openings in the seismic environment of the potential site. The types and ranges of possible ground motions (seismic loads) are briefly discussed. Relevant historical records of underground opening performance during seismic loading are reviewed. Simple analytical methods of predicting liner performance under combined in situ, thermal, and seismic loading are presented, and results of calculations are discussed in the context of realistic performance requirements for concrete-lined openings for the preclosure period. Design features that will enhance liner stability and mitigate the impact of the potential seismic load are reviewed. The paper is limited to preclosure performance …

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.

An essential part of the license application for a geologic repository will be the demonstration of compliance with the standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The performance assessments that produce the demonstration must rely on models of various levels of detail. The most detailed of these models are needed for understanding thoroughly the complex physical and chemical processes affecting the behavior of the system. For studying the behavior of major components of the system, less detailed models are often useful. For predicting the behavior of the total system, models of a third kind may be needed. These models must cover all the important processes that contribute to the behavior of the system, because they must estimate the behavior under all significant conditions for 10,000 years. In addition, however, computer codes that embody these models must calculate very rapidly because of the EPA standard`s requirement for probabilistic estimates, which will be produced by sampling thousands of times from probability distributions of parameters. For this reason, the total-system models must be less complex than the detailed-process and subsystem models. The total-system performance is evaluated through modeling of the following components: Radionuclide release from the engineered-barrier system. Fluid flow in the geologic …

Release rates of 15 radionuclides from waste packages expected to result from partitioning and transmutation of Light-Water Reactor (LWR) and Actinide-Burning Liquid-Metal Reactor (ALMR) spent fuel are calculated and compared to release rates from standard LWR spent fuel packages. The release rates are input to a model for radionuclide transport from the proposed geologic repository at Yucca Mountain to the water table. Discharge rates at the water table are calculated and used in a model for transport to the accessible environment, defined to be five kilometers from the repository edge. Concentrations and dose rates at the accessible environment from spent fuel and wastes from reprocessing, with partitioning and transmutation, are calculated. Partitioning and transmutation of LWR and ALMR spent fuel reduces the inventories of uranium, neptunium, plutonium, americium and curium in the high-level waste by factors of 40 to 500. However, because release rates of all of the actinides except curium are limited by solubility and are independent of package inventory, they are not reduced correspondingly. Only for curium is the repository release rate much lower for reprocessing wastes.

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.

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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.