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Risk-Based Evaluation of Long-Term Safety for a Yucca Mountain Repository Using the IMARC TSPA Code

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2011

John Kessler
Affiliation:
Electric Power Research Institute, 3412 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto CA 94304, U.S.A, [email protected].
Michael Apted
Affiliation:
Monitor Scientific LLC, 3900 South Wadsworth Boulevard, Denver CO 80235, U.S.A, [email protected].
Matthew Kozak
Affiliation:
Monitor Scientific LLC, 3900 South Wadsworth Boulevard, Denver CO 80235, U.S.A, [email protected].
Wei Zhou
Affiliation:
Monitor Scientific LLC, 3900 South Wadsworth Boulevard, Denver CO 80235, U.S.A, [email protected].
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Abstract

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has conducted independent total system performance assessments (TSPAs) of the proposed Yucca Mountain spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste repository for 15 years. EPRI uses its TSPA code, IMARC, currently in its eighth version. The major results of the IMARC-8 analyses are presented in this paper. In all of the situations evaluated by EPRI using IMARC-8, the results for the reference repository concept for Yucca Mountain are well within the regulatory criteria established in the applicable regulations, 10 CFR 63 and 40 CFR 197. Further analyses indicate that at least two of the repository barriers must fail to function as anticipated for dose risks to rise as much as one millirem per year (1/15th of the regulatory limit).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2004

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References

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