Retrieval of spent fuel from a repository tuff
In accordance with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982, federal agencies have developed regulations to ensure that nuclear waste disposal operations will not endanger the public health and safety or the environment. Included in these regulations is the requirement to preserve, as an added measure of assurance, the option to retrieve emplaced spent fuel. Consequently, a repository design must include retrieval as a planned contingency. The Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) project is investigating the feasibility of locating a radioactive waste repository in the tuff formations at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada. The target horizon is located in the unsaturated zone at an approximate average depth of 300 m below the surface in a formation of welded tuff. Two options are currently being considered for emplacement of waste packages: horizontal and vertical. In the vertical emplacement option, a single package is emplaced in a 7.6-m-deep vertical hole drilled in the floor of the underground rooms. In the horizontal emplacement option, up to 35 canisters are emplaced in a horizontal borehole that is drilled into the side of the underground room. The horizontal boreholes are up to 200 m long. Both options require unique equipment and operations to fulfil the retrievability requirement. A retrieval plan is being developed to support the repository design for Yucca Mountain. This plan will be developed together with the development of conceptual design criteria for surface facilities, underground configurations, and waste-handling equipment.
- Research Organization:
- Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (United States). Coll. of Engineering; Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM
- OSTI ID:
- 59803
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-850314--Vol.1; ON: TI85015356
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Retrievability: strategy for compliance demonstration. Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations Project
One-twelfth-scale model of horizontal emplacement and retrieval equipment for radioactive waste packages at the proposed repository in tuff