Flooding of an underground facility at Yucca Mountain: A summary of NRC review plans

Staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) are developing review plans for a potential high-level waste (HLW) repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. This early preparation of NRC's review program will ensure that important technical issues related to compliance with 10 CFR Part 60 will be identified before receipt of a license application. Under the siting criteria of NRC's Part 60, one of the potentially adverse conditions is the potential for flooding of the underground facility by surface waters. The Department of Energy (DOE) should evaluate this and other conditions in a license application. This paper summarizes the NRC staff's plans to review DOE's demonstration of compliance with Part 60 regarding potential flooding of an underground facility. We present these plans recognizing that the Congress is currently considering changes in how a HLW repository would be licensed