Waste package and underground facility design

The design of the waste package and the underground facility for radioactive waste disposal presents many challenges never before addressed in an engineering design effort. The designs must allow for handling and emplacement of the waste and must ensure that the waste will be isolated over time periods that extend beyond those normally dealt with in engineering solutions. Once developed, these designs must be defended in a licensing arena to allow construction and operation of the disposal system. The design of the waste package and the repository is being conducted iteratively. Each iteration of the design is accompanied by an assessment of the performance of the design and an assessment of remaining design issues. These assessments are used to establish the basis for the next design phase. Design requirements are assessed and revised as necessary before the initiation of each design phase. In addition, the design effort is being closely integrated with the siting effort through the application of an issue identification and resolution strategy