Engineered barrier environment, Yucca Mountain

The US Department of Energy is studying the suitability of Yucca Mountain (YM) as a potential nuclear waste repository site. Environmental conditions are important to engineered barrier system (EBS) design, materials testing, selection, design criteria, waste-form characterization, and performance assessment. Yucca Mountain is located in uninhabited desert which results in an environmental framework (unsaturated conditions, and sorptive properties of the rock materials) that is generally favorable for waste disposal. However, waste package (WP) and engineered barrier system (EBS) design concepts, including materials testing and selection, design criteria development, waste-form characterization, and performance assessments all require a specific and detailed understanding of the environmental conditions that will interact with the WP/EBS. Environmental conditions assessments from a series of laboratory and modeling studies have been conducted which provide the current understanding of the near-field environmental conditions at YM that not only exist now but will exist in the future. Because the environmental conditions can change with time, emphasis of the investigations were on processes and changed (not ambient) conditions