Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations. Quarterly report, January-March, 1983
The Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI), include site-exploration and regional studies of the Nevada Test Site (NTS) area to establish whether a technically acceptable site exists for consideration as a potential location for one of the commercial nuclear waste repositories to be established. Yucca Mountain is located on and adjacent to the southwestern boundary of the NTS about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The mountain is a long narrow ridge generally running north and south with a steep western slope and a gentler eastern slope. The underlying strata are inclined at three to eight degrees to the east. The ridge stands from about 1000 to 1200 feet above the surrounding alluvial flats. One of the characteristics that makes Yucca Mountain attractive is the presence of a potentially suitable repository host rock known as tuff; tuff is a highly sorptive rock composed of solidified and welded volcanic ash and detritus (rock fragments and other loose material). Tuff has good physical, mechanical, and chemical characteristics for nuclear waste containment and for preventing waste from reaching the biosphere. Each layer of tuff was formed separately millions of years ago by volcanic activity. Yucca Mountain also has an extremely deep static water table - more than 1700 feet below land surface. This feature makes it possible to choose the most favorable repository horizon in the unsaturated zone where water would not be expected to fill a repository because of very low water infiltration rates. The horizon selected for detailed at-depth characterization is a unit of the Topopah Spring tuff about 1200 feet below land surface and about 550 feet above the static water table.
- Research Organization:
- USDOE Nevada Operations Office, Las Vegas, NV (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 59067
- Report Number(s):
- NVO--196-34; ON: DE84001834
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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