IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reensy/v122y2014icp165-188.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Waste degradation and mobilization in performance assessments for the Yucca Mountain disposal system for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste

Author

Listed:
  • Rechard, Rob P.
  • Stockman, Christine T.

Abstract

This paper summarizes modeling of waste degradation and mobilization in performance assessments (PAs) conducted between 1984 and 2008 to evaluate feasibility, viability, and assess compliance of a repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada. As understanding of the Yucca Mountain disposal system increased, the waste degradation module, or succinctly called the source-term, evolved from initial assumptions in 1984 to results based on process modeling in 2008. In early PAs, waste degradation had significant influence on calculated behavior but as the robustness of the waste container was increased and modeling of the container degradation improved, waste degradation had much less influence in later PAs. The variation of dissolved concentrations of radionuclides progressed from simple probability distributions in early PAs to functions dependent upon water chemistry in later PAs. Also, transport modeling of radionuclides in the waste, container, and invert were added in 1995; and, colloid-facilitated transport of radionuclides was added in 1998.

Suggested Citation

  • Rechard, Rob P. & Stockman, Christine T., 2014. "Waste degradation and mobilization in performance assessments for the Yucca Mountain disposal system for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 165-188.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reensy:v:122:y:2014:i:c:p:165-188
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2013.06.028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0951832013001932
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ress.2013.06.028?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. B. Kersting & D. W. Efurd & D. L. Finnegan & D. J. Rokop & D. K. Smith & J. L. Thompson, 1999. "Migration of plutonium in ground water at the Nevada Test Site," Nature, Nature, vol. 397(6714), pages 56-59, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rechard, Rob P. & Wilson, Michael L. & Sevougian, S. David, 2014. "Progression of performance assessment modeling for the Yucca Mountain disposal system for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 96-123.
    2. Rechard, Rob P. & Liu, Hui-Hai & Tsang, Yvonne W. & Finsterle, Stefan, 2014. "Site characterization of the Yucca Mountain disposal system for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 32-52.
    3. Rechard, Rob P. & Arnold, Bill W. & Robinson, Bruce A. & Houseworth, James E., 2014. "Transport modeling in performance assessments for the Yucca Mountain disposal system for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 189-206.
    4. Victor Malkovsky & Sergey Yudintsev & Michael Ojovan, 2023. "Forecast of 241 Am Migration from a System of Deep Horizontal Boreholes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-15, October.
    5. Victor I. Malkovsky & Vladislav A. Petrov & Sergey V. Yudintsev & Michael I. Ojovan & Valeri V. Poluektov, 2023. "Influence of Rock Structure on Migration of Radioactive Colloids from an Underground Repository of High-Level Radioactive Waste," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:reensy:v:122:y:2014:i:c:p:165-188. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/reliability-engineering-and-system-safety .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.