This report provides an overview of the scope and status of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Salt Repository Project (SRP) at the time when the project was terminated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987. The report can be used as a "roadmap" into the 10-year program of siting a geologic repository for high-level nuclear waste in rock salt formations. Its purpose is to aid persons interested in the information developed during the course of this effort.

In December 1984, the Department of Energy (DOE) published draft environmental assessments (EAs) to support the proposed<br/> nomination of five sites and the recommendation of three sites for characterization for the first radioactive-waste repository. A chapter common to all the draft EAs<br/>(Chapter 7) presented rankings of the five sites against the postclosure and the preclosure technical siting guidelines.

Screening criteria and specifications are recommended to aid in the evaluation of sites proposed for nuclear waste disposal in basalt and domed salt. The recommended new criteria proposed in this report are intended to supplement existing repository-related criteria for nuclear waste disposal. The existing criteria are contained in 10 CFR 60 sections which define siting criteria of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and ONWI 33(2) which defines siting criteria of the Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation (ONWI) for the Department of Energy.

The purpose of this study is to provide a preliminary geotechnical data base sufficient to initiate the development of Long-Term Risk Models (LTRM), for salt domes, basalt and crystalline rock, and identify technical issues requiring additional investigation.

Site suitability studies at LLL to date have considered repositories in bedded salt and shale.