The permanent disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power generation and defense activities in a deep geologic repository in a manner that protects the health and safety of the public and the environment is a complex scientific and engineering problem with considerable social, political and national security implications. The Yucca Mountain Project's Lead Lab is contributing to the solution of this national problem by developing the technical and modeling basis that supports the safety case for the Yucca Mountain repository. This safety case demonstrates that the engineered and natural barriers comprising the repository system will effectively isolate the waste for very long periods of time following the permanent closure of the repository so that the risks associated from waste disposal are within acceptable limits established in the applicable regulatory standards.
Hundreds of the world's top experts in the technical and scientific disciplines related to the geologic disposal of nuclear waste have developed, over the past twenty years, a repository design concept and a scientific basis that demonstrate the safety of the Yucca Mountain repository. The Yucca Mountain repository will consist of about 60 miles of tunnels carved in solid rock about 660 feet to about 1400 feet beneath the ground surface, and between 570 feet and 1200 feet above the water table. Current estimates are that it would take approximately 50 years to transport and emplace the 70,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste that the Yucca Mountain repository will contain. The Yucca Mountain repository will be permanently closed approximately 100 years after the commencement of waste receipt and emplacement operations.
Beginning in October 2006, the first phase of our mission was to support the submittal of a credible, defensible, and respected license application for the Yucca Mountain repository by the Department of Energy to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). We have developed the technical and modeling basis for the post closure component of the safety analysis for the Yucca Mountain repository and the corresponding sections of the license application. Having successfully completed this phase of our mission in April 2008, we are preparing for the next phase, which, pending docketing of the license application by the NRC later this year, will be to successfully defend our component of the safety case and the underlying technical and modeling basis during the 3-year licensing process established in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended.
Point of Contact:
Evaristo J. (Tito) Bonano,
(702) 295-4641