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The objective of this calculation is to evaluate the peak temperatures due to thermal loading and boundary conditions of the TAD Waste Package design under nominal Monitored Geologic Repository conditions.
Hydrogen-induced cracking is characterized by the decreased ductility and fracture toughness of a material due to the absorption of atomic hydrogen in the metal crystal lattice. Corrosion is the source of hydrogen generation. For the current design of the engineered barrier without backfill, hydrogen-induced cracking may be a concern because the titanium drip shield can be galvanically coupled to rock bolts (or wire mesh), which may fall onto the drip shield, thereby creating conditions for hydrogen production by electrochemical reaction.
The Monitored Geologic Repository (MGR) Waste Package Operations (WPO) of the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management System Management & Operating Contractor (CRWMS M&O) performed calculations to provide input for disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from the Shippingport Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) (Ref. 1). The Shippingport PWR SNF has been considered for disposal at the proposed Yucca Mountain site.
As part of the plutonium waste form development and down-select process, repository analyses have been conducted to evaluate the long-term performance of these forms for repository acceptance. Intact and degraded mode criticality analysis of the mixed oxide (MOX) spent fuel is presented in Volume I, while Volume II presents the evaluations of the waste form containing plutonium immobilized in a ceramic matrix.
The Range of Neutronic Parameters for Repository Criticality Analyses technical report contains a summary of the benchmark criticality analyses (including the laboratory critical experiment [LCEs] and the commercial reactor criticals [CRCs]) used to support the validation of the criticality evaluation methods. This report also documents the development of the Critical Limits (CLs) for the repository criticality analyses.
The purpose of this report is to document calculations of the number of waste packages that could be damaged in a potential future igneous event intersecting a repository at YuccaMountain. The analyses include disruption from an igneous intrusion and from an igneous eruption. The analyses also support the evaluation of the potential consequences from a future event as part of the total system performance assessment (TSPA) for the license application for the Yucca Mountain Project.
Yucca Mountain—that barren rise in the desert ninety miles from Las Vegas—is the nation‘s only site identified for the potential location of the first ge ological repository for commercially-generated HLNW and SNF. Many assume
that Yucca Mountain has geologic and climatic qualities that make it uniquely
suitable to isolate the thousands of metric tons of the world‘s most lethal, long lived waste currently accumulating at 104 operating nuclear power plants across the United States.
Unfortunately, Yucca Mountain is an exceptionally bad site,
Nuclear waste disposal in the USA is a difficult policy issue infused with
science, technology, and politics. This issue provides an example of the co-production
of scientific knowledge and politics through public policy. The proponents of a
repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, argue that their decision to go ahead
with the site is based on ‘sound science’, but the science they use to uphold their
decision is influenced by politics. In turn, the politics of site selection has been altered
With the first 100 days of the Obama Administration behind us, the Institute for 21st Century Energy presents
this nuclear waste policy document that recounts the history of the country’s nuclear waste policy, discusses
the mechanics of the issue, and off ers specifi c recommendations to the Obama Administration and the
U.S. Congress.
Two weeks aft er the 2008 presidential election, the Institute released dozens of energy policy recommendations for
the incoming administration and 111th Congress. Ten recommendations focused on committing to and expanding
U.S. efforts to site and construct a deep geologic repository for used fuel and high level radioactive waste (HLW) proceeded sporadically over a three-decade period from the late 1950s until 1982, when the U.S. Congress enacted the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) codifying a national approach for developing a deep geologic repository. Amendment of the NWPA in 1987 resulted in a number of dramatic changes in direction for the U.S. program, most notably the selection of Yucca Mountain as the only site of the three remaining candidates for continued investigation.
