Insights to Repository Performance through Study of a Nuclear Test Site.

Smith, D. K. ; Kersting, A. B. ; Thompson, J. L. ; Finnegan, D. L.

Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee

关键词: Nuclear weapons;    High-level radioactive wastes;    Radionuclide migration;    Yucca Mountain;    Radioactive waste facilities;   

RP-ID  :  DE200415006369

学科分类：工程和技术（综合）

美国|英语

来源: National Technical Reports Library

【 摘 要 】

Underground nuclear test sites offer an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate processes relevant to high-level waste repository performance in the absence of engineered barriers. Radionuclide migration programs at the Nevada Test Site represent a twenty-five year systematic investigation of the diverse radiologic source terms residual from weapons testing and the evolution of the hydrologic source term which comprises those radionuclides dissolved in or otherwise available for transport by groundwater. The Nevada Test Site shares actinide source terms, correlative geology, an identical tectonic setting, similar climate, and a thick unsaturated zone with the adjacent proposed Yucca Mountain high-level waste repository and provides a natural laboratory to assess long-term radionuclide transport in the near field. Analog studies may ultimately help validate predictions of radionuclide transport from the Yucca Mountain repository.