Year
1989
Abstract
The amendment to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, passed in 1987, focused the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) high-level nuclear waste program on the Yucca Mountain site, located in south-central Nevada. The site characterization activities planned at the site are designed to obtain the site data required to determine the suitability, and eventual licensibility, of the Yucca Mountain site. The goal of emplacing waste in a geologic repository is to protect the safety and health of the public by complying with the governing regulations promulgated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Preliminary site-specific data requirements were presented in the Site Characterization Plan, issued by the DOE for formal review in December 1988. The data acquisition activities described in the plan are focused on obtaining information that will allow evaluations of the natural and engineered barriers that are expected to contribute to repository performance. A database will be developed to allow prediction of the range of variation in geologic conditions that is likely over the next 10,000 years, as well as to estimate the probabilities for catastrophic geologic events that could affect repository performance.