Using performance assessment for radioactive waste disposal decision making - implementation of the methodology into the third performance assessment iteration of the greater confinement disposal site
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- GRAM, Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
The US Department of Energy is responsible for the disposal of a variety of radioactive wastes. Some of these wastes are prohibited from shallow land burial and also do not meet the waste acceptance criteria for proposed waste repositories at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and Yucca Mountain. These wastes have been termed {open_quotes}special-case{close_quotes} waste and require an alternative disposal method. From 1984 to 1989, the Department of Energy disposed of a small quantity of special-case transuranic wastes at the Greater Confinement Disposal (GCD) site at the Nevada Test Site. In this paper, an iterative performance assessment is demonstrated as a useful decision making tool in the overall compliance assessment process for waste disposal. The GCD site has been used as the real-site implementation and test of the performance assessment approach. Through the first two performance assessment iterations for the GCD site, and the transition into the third, we demonstrate how the performance assessment methodology uses probabilistic risk assessment concepts to guide effective decisions about site characterization activities and how it can be used as a powerful tool in bringing compliance assessment decisions to closure.
- Research Organization:
- American Society of Civil Engineers, New York, NY (United States); American Nuclear Society, La Grange Park, IL (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 60776
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940553--Vol.3
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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