United states in situ test programs: WIPP studies

The United States has been actively conducting in situ experiments in geologic environments for the last decade. These experiments have been designed to help determine the viability of deep geologic disposal as a solution to the nation nuclear waste problem. Two projects are now the main focus of this work. They are the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), located southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico, and the Yucca Mountain Site, located north of Las Vegas, Nevada. The WIPP has been designed for permanent disposal of transuranic radioactive waste within a 610 meter thick, 225 million year old salt deposit. An extensive in situ testing program has been ongoing since 1983 and includes rock mechanics, strength of materials, plugging and sealing, permeabilities, porosity, closure, and heated room studies. The Yucca Mountain Site is being designed to permanently store United States high level waste generated by the nuclear power industry and defense programs. Construction has not yet begun at the Yucca Mountain Site, so experiments are in the planning stage. There have been a number of experiments conducted on spent fuel that can be applied to the Yucca Mountain Site, which are discussed within the text of this paper. Many of the rock mechanics, strength of materials, permeability, and porosity studies will be similar to the WIPP experiments; Yucca Mountain, however, is part of a 12-13 million year old volcanic tuff and will ultimately dispose of high level heat-producing radioactive waste. Therefore, substantial differences must be accounted for in the experimental programs at each site