Lessons Learned from WIPP Site Characteriztion, Performance Assessment, and Regulatory Review Related to Radionuclide Migration through Water-Conducting Features
Many lessons have been learned over the past 24 years as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) project has progressed from initial site characterization to final licensing that may be of relevance to other nuclear-waste-disposal projects. These lessons pertain to the manner in which field and laboratory investigations are planned, how experiments are interpreted, how conceptual and numerical models are developed and simplified~ and how defensibility and credibility are achieved and maintained. These lessons include 1) Site characterization and performance assessment (PA) should evolve together through an iterative process, with neither activity completely dominating the other. 2) Defensibility and credibility require a much greater depth of understanding than can be represented in PA models. 3) Experimentalists should be directly involved in model and parameter abstraction and simplification for PA. 4) External expert review should be incorporated at all stages of a project~ not just after an experiment or modeling activity is completed. 5) Key individuals should be retained for the life of a project or a process must be established to transfer their working knowledge to new individuals. 6) An effective QA program needs to be stable and consistent for the duration of a project and rests on best scientific practices. All of these lessons relate to the key point that consideration must be given from the earliest planning stages to maximizing the defensibility and credibility of all work.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 1903
- Report Number(s):
- SAND98-1844C; ON: DE00001903
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: GEOTRAP-3; Barcelona, Spain; 06/10-12/1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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