NWTS waste package program plan. Volume I. Program strategy, description, and schedule

This document describes the work planned for developing the technology to design, test and produce packages used for the long-term isolation of nuclear waste in deep geologic repositories. Waste forms considered include spent fuel and high-level waste. The testing and selection effort for barrier materials for radionuclide containment is described. The NWTS waste package program is a design-driven effort; waste package conceptual designs are used as input for preliminary designs, which are upgraded to a final design as materials and testing data become available. Performance assessment models are developed and validated. Milestones and a detailed schedule are given for the waste package development effort. Program logic networks defining work flow, interfaces among the NWTS Projects, and interrelationships of specific activities are presented. Detailed work elements are provided for the Waste Package Program Plan subtasks - design and development, waste form, barrier materials, and performance evaluation - for salt and basalt, host rocks for which the state of waste package knowledge and the corresponding data base are advanced