Publications Details
Summary of scientific investigations for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
The scientific issues concerning disposal of radioactive wastes in salt formations have received 40 years of attention since the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) first addressed this issue in the mid-50s. For the last 21 years, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) have directed site specific studies for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). This paper will focus primarily on the WIPP scientific studies now in their concluding stages, the major scientific controversies regarding the site, and some of the surprises encountered during the course of these scientific investigations. The WIPP project`s present understanding of the scientific processes involved continues to support the site as a satisfactory, safe location for the disposal of defense-related transuranic waste and one which will be shown to be in compliance with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards. Compliance will be evaluated by incorporating data from these experiments into Performance Assessment (PA) models developed to describe the physical and chemical processes that could occur at the WIPP during the next 10,000 years under a variety of scenarios. The resulting compliance document is scheduled to be presented to the EPA in October 1996 and all relevant information from scientific studies will be included in this application and the supporting analyses. Studies supporting this compliance application conclude the major period of scientific investigation for the WIPP. Further studies will be of a ``confirmatory`` and monitoring nature.