Open AccessTSPA 1991: An initial total-system performance assessment for Yucca Mountain; Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project
Author(s) -
R.W. Barnard,
Michael L. Wilson,
Holly A. Dockery,
Paul Kaplan,
R. Philip Eaton,
F.W. Bingham,
John H. Gauthier,
T.H. Robey
Publication year - 1992
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/140802
Subject(s) - yucca , intrusion , site selection , radioactive waste , identification (biology) , environmental science , geology , engineering , waste management , ecology , biology , geochemistry , political science , law
This report describes an assessment of the long-term performance of a repository system that contains deeply buried highly radioactive waste; the system is assumed to be located at the potential site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The study includes an identification of features, events, and processes that might affect the potential repository, a construction of scenarios based on this identification, a selection of models describing these scenarios (including abstraction of appropriate models from detailed models), a selection of probability distributions for the parameters in the models, a stochastic calculation of radionuclide releases for the scenarios, and a derivation of complementary cumulative distribution functions (CCDFs) for the releases. Releases and CCDFs are calculated for four categories of scenarios: aqueous flow (modeling primarily the existing conditions at the site, with allowances for climate change), gaseous flow, basaltic igneous activity, and human intrusion. The study shows that models of complex processes can be abstracted into more simplified representations that preserve the understanding of the processes and produce results consistent with those of more complex models