Advanced fuel cycles and impacts On The Yucca Mountain Repository

One of the goals identified for advanced fuel cycles, such as that proposed by the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, is to reduce the volume of wastes that would ultimately have to be disposed in a geologic repository. Besides reducing volume, techniques that recycle the vast majority of actinides along with the removal of key fission products also reduce the inventory of radionuclides that must ultimately be disposed and the thermal output of the wastes. Advanced recycling techniques may also generate waste forms having different characteristics than those that have been considered for disposal in a repository at Yucca Mountain to-date. These all have a potential impact on several aspects of a repository, such as the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, including surface and subsurface facility design, pre-closure and post-closure safety analyses, and ultimately licensing. These changes would all have to be performed in accordance with the requirements at 10 CFR 63 and approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a license amendment prior to the disposal of any wastes from an advanced fuel cycle. (authors)