Environment on the Surfaces of the Drip Shield and Waste Package Outer Barrier

This report provides supporting analysis of the conditions at which an aqueous solution can exist on the drip shield or waste package surfaces, including theoretical underpinning for the evolution of concentrated brines that could form by deliquescence or evaporation, and evaluation of the effects of acid-gas generation on brine composition. This analysis does not directly feed the total system performance assessment for the license application (TSPA-LA), but supports modeling and abstraction of the in-drift chemical environment (BSC 2004 [DIRS 169863]; BSC 2004 [DIRS 169860]). It also provides analyses that may support screening of features, events, and processes, and input for response to regulatory inquiries. This report emphasizes conditions of low relative humidity (RH) that, depending on temperature and chemical conditions, may be dry or may be associated with an aqueous phase containing concentrated electrolytes. Concentrated solutions at low RH may evolve by evaporative concentration of water that seeps into emplacement drifts, or by deliquescence of dust on the waste package or drip shield surfaces. The minimum RH for occurrence of aqueous conditions is calculated for various chemical systems based on current understanding of site geochemistry and equilibrium thermodynamics. The analysis makes use of known characteristics of Yucca Mountain waters and dust from existing tunnels, laboratory data, and relevant information from the technical literature and handbooks