Yucca Mountain, Nevada

The primary issue is to prevent groundwater from becoming radioactively contaminated. Thus, the property of concern of the long-lived radioactive species is their solubility in water. The long-lived actinides such as plutonium are metallic and insoluble even if water were to penetrate into the repository. Certain fission-product isotopes such as iodine-129 and technicium-99 are soluble, however, and therefore represent the principal although very low level hazard. Studies of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, tentatively chosen as the site for the spent fuel and high level waste repository, are underway (44). 

December. U.S. Congress approves Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the only repositoiy site for high-level nuclear waste. 

Wolfsberg, K. Aguilar, R.D. Bayhurst, B.P. Daniels, W.R. DeVilliers, S.J. Erdal, B.R. Lawrence, F.O. Maestas, S. Mitchell, A.J. Oliver, P.Q. Raybold, N.A. Rundberg, R.S. Thompson, J.L. Vine, E.N. "Sorption-Desorption Studies on Tuff. III. A Continuation of Studies with Samples from Jackass Flats and Yucca Mountain, Nevada", Report LA-8747-MS, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1981. 

Zhang K., Wu Y.S., et al. Parallel commuting simulation of fluid flow in the unsaturated zone of Yucca Mountain, Nevada. 2003 Journal of Contaminant Hydrology.62-... 

Underground chambers are also constructed in frozen earth (see subsection Low-Temperature and Cryogenic Storage ). Underground tunnel or tank storage is often the most practical way of storing hazardous or radioactive materials, such as proposed at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. A cover of 30 m (100 ft) of rock or dense earth can exert a pressure of about 690 kPa (100 Ibftin ). 

Neymark, L. A., Paces, J. B. Amelin, Y. V. 2003. Reliability of U-Th-Pb dating of secondary silica at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. 10th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference, March 30 to April 3 2003, Las Vegas, NV, 1-12. 

Pearcy, E. C., Prokryl, J. D., Murphy, W. M. Leslie, B. W. 1994. Alteration of uraninite from the Nopal I deposit, Pena Blanca District, Chihuahua, Mexico, compared to degradation of SNF in the proposed U.S. high level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Applied Geochemistry, 9, 713—732. 

Stuckless, J S., Z.E. Peterman, and D.R. Muhs U and Sr Isotopes in Ground Water and Calcite, Yucca Mountain, Nevada Evidence Against Upwelling Water, Science, 551 (October 25, 1991). 

EPA (2001a). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 40 CFR Part 197— Public health and environmental radiation protection standards for Yucca Mountain, Nevada, Final rule, 66 FR 32074 (U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington). 

Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Soil Science Society of America Journal,... 

Several studies have used radiogenic isotopes to study groundwater questions on relatively short (or local) length scales (<2 km). Stuckless et al. (1991) combined the use of strontium and uranium isotope measurements, in studies of groundwaters and secondary calcite deposits in fault zones at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. They tested whether veins formed by upwelling of deep-seated waters... 

Marshall D. D., Whelan J. F., Peterman Z. E., Futa K., Mahan S. A., and Struckless J. S. (1992) Isotopic studies of fracture coatings at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, USA. In Proceedings 7th Water—Rock Interaction Symposium Park City, UT (eds. Y. K. Kharaka and A. S. Maest). A. A. Balkema, Roterdam, pp. 737—740. 

Stuckless J. S., Peterman Z. E., andMuhs D. R. (1991) U and Sr isotopes in ground water and calcite. Yucca Mountain, Nevada evidence against upwelling water. Science 254, 551-554. 

Introduction actinide solubilities in reference waters. In this section, the environmental chemistry of the actinides is examined in more detail by considering three different geochemical environments. Compositions of groundwater from these environments are described in Tables 5 and 6. These include (i) low-ionic-strength reducing waters from crystalline rocks at nuclear waste research sites in Sweden (ii) oxic water from the J-13 well at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the site of a proposed repository for high-level nuclear waste in tuffaceous rocks and (iii) reference brines associated with the WIPP, a repository for TRU in... 

Thomas K. (1987) Summary of sorption measurements performed with Yucca Mountain, Nevada tuff samples and water from well J-13. Lx)s Alamos National Laboratory. 

Tien P.-L., Siegel M. D., Updegraff C. D., Wahi K. K., and Guzowski R. V. (1985) Repository Site Data Report for Unsaturated Tuff, Yucca Mountain, Nevada. US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

Turner D. R. and Pabalan R. T. (1999) Abstraction of mechanistic sorption model results for performance assessment calculations at Yucca Mountain. Nevada. Waste Manage. 19, 375-388. 

US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (2001) 10 CFR Parts 2, 19, 20, 21, etc. disposal of high-level radioactive wastes in a proposed geological repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada final rule. Federal Register 66(213), 55732-55816. 

Research has focused on Yucca Mountain, Nevada, at the western edge of the National Test Site, for its suitability as a nuclear waste repository for SNF and some defense waste. Many political leaders of Nevada strongly oppose this plan, and they seriously question that nuclear waste can be safely kept out of the human environment for 10,000 years, as is required under the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act. 

Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is being considered as the site for deep geological disposal of U.S. high-level nuclear wastes. Any release of uranium (or other radionuclides) from the waste to... 

The Pena Blanca deposit in northern Mexico occurs in unsaturated and oxidized rhyolitic tuffs, in a geologic and climatic setting similar to that of the proposed U.S. repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Much of the original UO2 ore has been oxidized and altered, sometimes first to form U(VI) oxide hydrates such as schoepite, and later to precipitate as more stable and abundant U(VI) silicate... 

Alteration of uraninite U02(c)] in the deposit produces U(V1) oxyhydroxides and subsequently uranophane. The local geology is welded silicic tuffs, similar to the geology of Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Assuming 25 C and oxidizing conditions, and assuming that the solubility of uranophane limits U concentrations, what U(aq) concentration would you expect to find in the borehole water ... 

Yang, I. C. 1992. Row and transport through unsuturated rock—data from two test holes. Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Proc. 3d inti. conf. on high level radioactive waste management 1, pp. 732-37. La Grange Park, IL Am. Nucl. Soc. Inc. 

Yang, I. C., G. W. Rattray, and P. Yti. 1996. Interpretations of chemical and isotopic data from boreholes in the unsaturated-zone at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. U.S. Geol. Survey Water-Resources Inv. Rept. WRIR 96-4058. (In press.)... 

Tunnels are being dug 400 m (about 1300 feet) beneath Yucca Mountain, Nevada, at a proposed site for storage of radioactive waste. It will be the largest radioactive storage facility in the country, capable of holding up to 63 500 tons of waste. 

For the centralized disposal of high-level nuclear wastes, Yucca Mountain, Nevada, was selected in large part because of national security concerns. 

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