Waste Management
Risk assessment, primarily in the specialized form called "performance assessment," is a vital component of Sandia's Nuclear Waste Management Program. This program is helping the Nation to solve the problems associated with the disposal of radioactive and other wastes. The program deals with spent fuel from reactors, high-level waste, transuranic (TRU) waste, mixed wastes, and special wastes from defense programs. Performance assessment rests on a broad spectrum of basic research, engineering, and development of decision methods. This entire spectrum is being performed at Sandia.
The disposal of these wastes poses many challenges. The federal, state, and local regulations governing the disposal are complex, as are the technical questions they raise. To help several projects comply with these regulations, we apply extensive capabilities developed earlier in nuclear-weapons programs. By working with universities, industrial firms, and other national laboratories, we have extended our capabilities to produce a large array of practical tools and methods.
The Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project is investigating the suitability of a Nevada site for permanent underground disposal of spent fuel and high-level waste. Sandia does performance assessment, site characterization, laboratory and field testing, model development, design analysis, and extensive quality assurance and record keeping for the project.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is a proposed underground repository in New Mexico for transuranic waste from defense programs. As the scientific advisor to the project, Sandia does performance assessment, disposal-room and drift studies, experiments with waste, sealing and rock-mechanics studies, development of hydrologic and transport models, quality assurance, and strategic planning. The Compliance Certification Application for the WIPP Project was submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency in October 1996. It relies heavily on the results of the Sandia work.
The Greater Confinement Disposal project is evaluating the adequacy of using deep boreholes in alluvium at the Nevada Test Site for the past disposal of "orphan" TRU wastes.
By assessing the performance of potential future repositories, Sandia has examined options for disposing of spent fuel from DOE reactors and of waste from the processing of defense spent fuel. The performance assessments describe a variety of waste forms in a variety of disposal mediasalt, granite, alluvium and tuffand compare the predicted long-term performance with environmental regulations.
Another project adapts existing techniques to the environmental restoration of the former nuclear-weapons complex. By applying probabilistic analysis to decisions and to the collection of data, Sandia is making such projects more cost-effective.
Other pages in this brochure present information on four examples of Sandia's risk-assessment work for waste management:
For further information, contact:
Les Shephard, Program Manager
Sandia National Laboratories, MS-1395
Albuquerque, NM 87185-1395
Phone: (505) 844-1528
e-mail: lesheph@sandia.gov
Submitted October 1996
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