Sandia is stepping forward with an excellent mix of staff and management with relevant experience. “Our position is that the license application has to be done and that we can do it,” said Orrell. “There is a strong sense we can, we have to, and we will do it.”
Sandia is responsible for about half of a 7,000-page license application and for most of the underpinning science. The long-term performance section, called the post-closure performance assessment, will be Sandia’s contribution. Recent regulation changes have pushed the post-closure timeframe from 10,000 years to one million years. The license must take into account all of the things that could happen and their effects.
One example of the work involved is the project’s approach to the waste packages that will hold the spent fuel rods underground beneath Yucca Mountain. The large, corrosion-resistant steel containers will be exposed to an evolving environment, with thermal, chemical, and hydrological aspects. Researchers need to assess and predict how long these containers will last before they corrode and what the consequences of the containers breaching is.
The performance assessment team must take into account normal as well as possible disruptive events, such as volcanic or seismic activity. This requires multidisciplinary expertise involving math and science, engineering, software, field and lab testing, as well as business systems and quality engineering specialties. All the supporting data and modules developed over the years by numerous participants are then integrated into a total system-performance assessment, which determines if the project complies with the regulations the NRC has set.
“It’s a big step from a 35-person workforce and $10 million budget a year ago to coordinating the efforts of an estimated 600 contributors (350 full-time equivalent workers) around the world and a $130 million budget,” said Orrell. “This is very analogous to what we did at WIPP and that’s why DOE has asked us to take this role.”