Report on geologic exploration activities
- comps.
This report provides an overview of the geological exploration activities being carried out as part of the National Waste Terminal Storage (NWTS) Program, which has been established by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to develop the technology and provide the facilities for the safe, environmentally acceptable isolation of civilian high-level and transuranic nuclear wastes, including spent fuel elements, for which the Federal government is responsible. The principal programmatic emphasis is on disposal in mined geologic repositories. Explorations are being conducted or planned in various parts of the country to identify potential sites for such repositories. The work is being undertaken by three separate but coordinated NWTS project elements. Under the Basalt Waste Isolation Project (BWIP), basalt formations underlying DOE's Hanford Reservation are being investigated. Granite, tuff, and shale formations at the DOE Nevada Test Site (NTS) are being similarly studied in the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI). The Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation (ONWI) is investigating domed salt formations in several Gulf Coast states and bedded salt formations in Utah and Texas. The ONWI siting studies are being expanded to include areas overlying crystalline rocks, shales, and other geohydrologic systems. The current status of these NWTS efforts, including the projected budgets for FY 1981, is summarized, and the criteria and methodology being employed in the explorations are described. The consistency of the overall effort with the recommendations presented in the Report to the President by the Interagency Review Group on Nuclear Waste Management (IRG), as well as with documents representing the national technical consensus, is discussed.
- Research Organization:
- Battelle Memorial Inst., Columbus, OH (USA). Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation
- DOE Contract Number:
- EY-76-C-06-1830
- OSTI ID:
- 5492907
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/RL/01830-14
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
58 GEOSCIENCES
580100 -- Geology & Hydrology-- (-1989)
BASALT
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGY
GRANITES
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
IGNEOUS ROCKS
MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
ROCKS
SALT DEPOSITS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SHALES
SITE SELECTION
TUFF
VOLCANIC ROCKS
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES