An annotated history of container candidate material selection

This paper documents events in the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) Project that have influenced the selection of metals and alloys proposed for fabrication of waste package containers for permanent disposal of high-level nuclear waste in a repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The time period from 1981 to 1988 is covered in this annotated history. The history traces the candidate materials that have been considered at different stages of site characterization planning activities. At present, six candidate materials are considered and described in the 1988 Consultation Draft of the NNWSI Site Characterization Plan (SCP). The six materials are grouped into two alloy families, copper-base materials and iron to nickel-base materials with an austenitic structure. The three austenitic candidates resulted from a 1983 survey of a longer list of candidate materials; the other three candidates resulted from a special request from DOE in 1984 to evaluate copper and copper-base alloys. 24 refs., 2 tabs