NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by the Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
This report was prepared with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy, Grant No. DE-FG08-92NV11227. All opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of DOE.
Additional copies of this report are available from:
Board on Radioactive Waste Management
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20418
Call 202-334-3066
Copyright 1995 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
COMMITTEE FOR YUCCA MOUNTAIN PEER REVIEW: SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS, PRECLOSURE HYDROLOGY, AND EROSION
ERNEST T. SMERDON, Chair,
University of Arizona, Tucson
JEAN M. BAHR, Vice Chair,
University of Wisconsin, Madison
VICTOR R. BAKER,
University of Arizona, Tucson
SUSAN L. BRANTLEY,
Pennsylvania State University, University Park
WILLIAM A. JURY,
University of California, Riverside
MARK D. KURZ,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
LEONARD J. LANE,
Southwest Watershed Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Tucson, Arizona
KAREN L. PRESTEGAARD,
University of Maryland, College Park
STAFF
CARL A. ANDERSON, Director
KEVIN D. CROWLEY, Associate Director & Study Director
REBECCA BURKA, Senior Project Assistant
SCOTT A. HASSELL, Intern
ERIKA L. WILLIAMS, Project Assistant
BOARD ON RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
MICHAEL C. KAVANAUGH, Chair,
ENVIRON Corporation, Emeryville, California
B. JOHN GARRICK, Vice Chair,
PLG, Inc., Newport Beach, California
JOHN F. AHEARNE,
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
JEAN M. BAHR,
University of Wisconsin, Madison
LYNDA L. BROTHERS,
Davis Wright Tremaine, Seattle, Washington
SOL BURSTEIN,
Wisconsin Electric Power, Milwaukee (retired)
MELVIN W. CARTER,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta (emeritus)
PAUL P. CRAIG,
University of California, Davis (emeritus)
MARY R. ENGLISH,
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
ROBERT D. HATCHER, JR.,
University of Tennessee/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Knoxville
DARLEANE C. HOFFMAN,
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California
PERRY L. McCARTY,
Stanford University, California
CHARLES McCOMBIE,
National Cooperative for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste, Wettingen, Switzerland
H. ROBERT MEYER,
Keystone Scientific, Inc., Fort Collins, Colorado
PRISCILLA P. NELSON,
University of Texas, Austin
D. KIRK NORDSTROM,
U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, Colorado
D. WARNER NORTH,
Decision Focus, Inc., Mountain View, California
GLENN PAULSON,
Paulson and Cooper, Inc., Jackson Hole, Wyoming
PAUL SLOVIC,
Decision Research, Eugene, Oregon
BENJAMIN L. SMITH, Independent Consultant,
Columbia, Tennessee
STAFF
CARL A. ANDERSON, Staff Director
KEVIN D. CROWLEY, Associate Director
ROBERT S. ANDREWS, Senior Staff Officer
KARYANIL T. THOMAS, Senior Staff Officer
THOMAS E. KIESS, Staff Officer
SUSAN B. MOCKLER, Research Associate
LISA J. CLENDENING, Administrative Associate
ROBIN L. ALLEN, Senior Project Assistant
REBECCA BURKA, Senior Project Assistant
DENNIS L. DUPREE, Senior Project Assistant
SCOTT A. HASSELL, Intern
PATRICIA A. JONES, Project Assistant
ERIKA L. WILLIAMS, Project Assistant
COMMISSION ON GEOSCIENCES, ENVIRONMENT, AND RESOURCES
M. GORDON WOLMAN, Chairman,
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
PATRICK R. ATKINS,
Aluminum Company of America, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
JAMES P. BRUCE,
Canadian Climate Program Board, Ottawa, Ontario
WILLIAM L. FISHER,
University of Texas, Austin
GEORGE M. HORNBERGER,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
DEBRA KNOPMAN,
Progressive Foundation, Washington, D.C.
PERRY L. McCARTY,
Stanford University, California
JUDY McDOWELL,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts
S. GEORGE PHILANDER,
Princeton University, New Jersey
RAYMOND A. PRICE,
Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario
THOMAS A. SCHELLING,
University of Maryland, College Park
ELLEN SILBERGELD,
University of Maryland Medical School, Baltimore
STEVEN M. STANLEY,
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
VICTORIA J. TSCHINKEL,
Landers and Parsons, Tallahassee, Florida
STAFF
STEPHEN RATTIEN, Executive Director
STEPHEN D. PARKER, Associate Executive Director
MORGAN GOPNIK, Assistant Executive Director
GREGORY SYMMES, Reports Officer
JAMES MALLORY, Administrative Officer
SANDI FITZPATRICK, Administrative Associate
SUSAN SHERWIN, Project Assistant
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
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The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government, and upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce Alberts and Dr. Harold Liebowitz are the chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.
PREFACE
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act1 designates Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the candidate site for the nation's first permanent geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste. The act charges the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) with conducting the necessary studies to determine whether the Yucca Mountain site meets the technical and regulatory requirements for a permanent repository. To meet this responsibility, OCRWM established the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office (YMSCO) to conduct the necessary investigations and analyses.
As part of its site characterization effort, YMSCO plans to issue a series of technical basis reports that will summarize and synthesize data, analyses, and interpretations on the following siting-related technical topics:2
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surface characteristics, preclosure hydrology, and erosion
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seismicity, tectonics, and volcanism;
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rock characteristics and geochemistry;
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preclosure radiological safety;
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geohydrology and transport; and
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total system performance assessment.
1 |
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 (P.L. 97-425) was signed into law in 1983 and amended in 1987 (P.L. 100-203) and 1992 (P.L. 102-486). |
2 |
The Department of Energy is in the process of reorganizing its site characterization program in response to cuts in its FY1996 budget. The committee understands that the DOE may not issue the remaining technical basis reports, but may instead focus on total system performance assessment—which was to be the topic of the sixth and final technical basis report. |
These technical basis reports will be used to support regulatory analyses by YMSCO to determine whether the Yucca Mountain site is suitable as a nuclear waste repository.
In late 1994, YMSCO asked the National Research Council to undertake independent, expert peer reviews of these technical basis reports. YMSCO asked the Research Council to analyze the manner in which scientific and technical information was collected, analyzed, and interpreted by DOE and its contractors and, at a minimum, to address the following questions:
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Have the data been collected and analyzed in a technically acceptable manner?
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Do the data, given the associated error and analytical and technical uncertainties, support the technical interpretations and conclusions made within the technical basis reports?
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Are there credible alternative interpretations that would significantly alter the conclusions reached?
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What testing, if any, would discriminate among alternative technical interpretations?
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If such testing is recommended, how effective would it be at reducing significant uncertainties?
YMSCO asked that the review not address regulatory compliance or the suitability of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository.
The Research Council's Governing Board agreed to undertake these peer reviews in February 1995. The approved statement of task is given in Appendix C. The Governing Board assigned the
responsibility for implementing these reviews to the Board on Radioactive Waste Management within the Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources, subject to overall management and control by the Research Council, particularly its Executive Office. Because the technical basis reports will differ substantially in subject and content, the Research Council's Governing Board decided that a different group of experts (committees) would be appointed to review each report. Each expert committee will set forth its review findings and conclusions in a National Research Council report that will be provided to OCRWM and made available to the public without restriction.
The Committee for Yucca Mountain Peer Review: Surface Characteristics, Preclosure Hydrology, and Erosion (see Appendix B) was appointed by the Chair of the National Research Council in June 1995 to review the Technical Basis Report for Surface Characteristics, Preclosure Hydrology, and Erosion (DOE Report YMP/TBR-001, Rev. 0, April 1995), referred to as the TBR. The committee held three meetings to gather information and develop its final report (this document), which provides the committee's review and a discussion of its findings and conclusions.
The committee wishes to acknowledge the assistance of several organizations and individuals who made it possible to complete this review on a very compressed time schedule. Jane Summerson (YMSCO) and her staff were very responsive to the committee's many requests for written materials during the course of this review. They also provided organizational and logistical support for the field excursion to Yucca Mountain. Carl Johnson
(Nevada Nuclear Waste Project Office) and his staff made available to the committee numerous documents that were not referenced in the TBR, and they provided advice and logistical support for the field excursion. Mary Ball, Secretary of the town of Beatty, Nevada, graciously opened the town's community center to the committee on a Sunday for a public session during the second meeting. The committee wishes to express its appreciation to all of these individuals for their assistance, and to the other individuals and organizations who provided oral and written input to the committee at its two information-gathering sessions.