Basic repository environmental assessment design basis, Vacherie Dome site

This study examines the engineering factors and costs associated with the construction, operation, and decommissioning of a high-level nuclear waste repository in salt in the Gulf Interior Region at Vacherie Dome near Minden, Louisiana. The study assumes a repository capacity of 36,000 metric tons of heavy metal (MTHM) of unreprocessed spent fuel and 36,000 MTHM of commercial high-level reprocessing waste, along with 7,020 canisters of defense high-level reprocessing waste and associated quantities of remote- and contact-handled transuranic waste (TRU). With the exception of TRU, all the waste forms are placed in 300- to 1,000-year-life carbon-steel waste packages in a collocated waste handling and packaging facility (WHRF), which is also described. The construction, operation, and decommissioning of the proposed repository is estimated to cost approximately $4.89 billion. Costs include those for the collocated WHRF, engineering, and contingency, but exclude waste form assembly and shipment to the site and waste package fabrication and shipment to the site. These costs reflect the relative average wage rates of the region and the relatively easy access to the site. Construction would require an estimated 6.75 years. Engineering factors and costs are not strongly influenced by environmental considerations. 51 refs., 3 figs., 20 tabs