Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Project Office independent scientific investigations program annual report, May 1997--April 1998

This annual summary report, prepared by the Nye County Nuclear Waste Repository Project Office (NWRPO), summarizes the activities that were performed during the period from May 1, 1997 to April 30, 1998. These activities were conducted in support of the Independent Scientific Investigation Program (ISIP) of Nye County at the Yucca Mountain Site (YMS). The Nye County NWRPO is responsible for protecting the health and safety of the Nye County residents. NWRPO`s on-site representative is responsible for designing and implementing the Independent Scientific Investigation Program (ISIP). Major objectives of the ISIP include: Investigating key issues related to conceptual design and performance of the repository that can have major impact on human health, safety, and the environment; identifying areas not being addressed adequately by the Department of Energy (DOE). Nye County has identified several key scientific issues of concern that may affect repository design and performance which were not being adequately addressed by DOE. Nye County has been conducting its own independent study to evaluate the significance of these issues. This report summarizes the results of monitoring from two boreholes and the Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF) tunnel that have been instrumented by Nye County since March and April of 1995. The preliminary data and interpretations presented in this report do not constitute and should not be considered as the official position of Nye County. The ISIP presently includes borehole and tunnel instrumentation, monitoring, data analysis, and numerical modeling activities to address the concerns of Nye County